Scissors
by EndingFury
Summary: It all started with a pair of scissors. The mistake has now been made, and the repercussions are grave. Can the endless tide of destruction be stopped now that it has already been started? Zoethian, Nanocoffee, InTheLittleDream, Xephmadia, Sjinty. Collab with Featherflower.
1. Chapter 1

**Well I guess I'm alone again.**

**~YOGSCAST Rythian**

**EndingFury here! This is my first collab EVER! I don't even know what I'm doing anyways! Yeeeaaaahhhh! Collab is with Featherflower**

**Yo guys, Featherflower here! Just popping in to say hi, and thank SpiritedandLoyal for her Enderborn idea, which will be touched on later. EndingFury and I wrote this together, enjoy!**

_It'll never get her! _The scientist vowed to himself. Nothing would touch Kim. He would battle this thing, like normal, but lately, he'd had another reason to succeed. Kim. Nothing would touch her. Especially not it.

Duncan heard a clattering noise in the far room, followed by a string of colourful, accented curses about Endermen. The scientist, fiercely battling his inner demon, struggled onto his feet and walked over to investigate what was going on. The roar of today's nuke still echoed in his ears. The explosion had been wasted. He hasn't stopped his enemy. The threat to all of Tekkit-Topia was still out there. He'd only attacked the girl to get his attention, though it hasn't been the one he was after that had come to her rescue.

What if it was that man, here right now? It sounded like him… and the curses made sense then…

There were no weapons in the lab. He didn't want to make it easier for his alter-ego to take control and kill the others. So Duncan walked towards the noise, praying the person would be friendly.

But the moment he got there, he knew that wasn't the case. A purple-silver sword flew at him the moment the scientist walked near where the sound had come from. Two angry, vibrant lilac orbs glowed in the shadows.

It was Rythian. And he wasn't here for pleasantries. The edge of the sword caught the back of his leg while Duncan scrambled to get away from the mage.

His mask, of course, covered the bottom of his face. He literally radiated rage. This wasn't the mage like when he was around Zoeya. This was the mage that Duncan had discovered. The one the scientist had tried to destroy.

The violet tinted sword flew  
at his face, its edge already stained red with his blood. The cut on his  
leg stung, but it was going to get worse if he didn't stop the mage.

"Rythian?"

"I gave you your chance, Duncan. You broke the truce." He hissed. His  
eyes glowed a brilliant purple, which was rather terrifying.

"Are you going to kill me while I'm defenceless?"

"Really Duncan?" He roared. All these years, the scientist had never heard Rythian raise his voice. Until now. "How can you say that?" He continued. "After what happened to Zoeya? Your nuke left us defenceless! And then you had the

audacity to attack again! You would have killed her! Don't even try to lie to me. Had Teep not chased you off, I'd be avenging her death right now!"

Duncan backed away from the deadly, flashing blade, his hands questing for  
something to use as a weapon. He was panicked, and not quite thinking straight. The demon still struggled, adding to his confused and shattered world. His fingers brushed something cold and hard. Duncan grabbed the thing and pulled it off the counter to where he could see it, recognizing it as a pair of scissors.

His new weapon.

Duncan ripped them open, gripping one handle and one blade in his hand, and  
slashed the other at Rythian. A little too fast. A little too hard. A little too close. And he didn't bother adjusting that. The blond haired scientist didn't care.

The serrated blade bit the flesh of the mage's throat and ripped into it.  
The mage froze, shock apparent on his face. Then his sword fell and he  
crumpled to the ground, hands flying up to his neck to hide the wound as blood splattered onto the ground, colouring his long fingers.

"Rythian?" A female voice shrieked. Turning around, Duncan saw Zoeya, staring in horror at the fallen mage. The mage that he had felled, using nothing  
but the pair of scissors that were still in his hand.

She ran to his side, but before she even got there, Duncan knew there was  
no way Rythian would live. The teeth of the scissors had ripped far  
too deep. There was too much blood on the ground, and on the handles  
of the scissors and staining Duncan's fingers crimson.

And it was his fault. He had done it. He hadn't controlled the rage  
enough not to kill Rythian.

"Duncan?" Zoeya gasped. "W-what-"

"Get out!" The scientist shrieked

hysterically. "Go! Take him and go!"

Zoeya looked like she wanted to say more, but thought better of it.  
She stuffed her cape under Rythian's chin in an effort to stop the  
blood, and struggled to get him off the ground. Duncan walked silently over  
to her and lifted the mage onto her shoulders, and thought he heard a  
low moan of pain from him. But that was impossible.

"I'll come for you, Duncan. I want you to know that." She sobbed.  
But, amid her tears, he could hear foreboding strength. She would keep  
that promise.

Then she left, leaving Duncan alone with a pair of bloodstained scissors.

"Duncan?" The scientist turned around.

"Oh, Notch, Kim." He sobbed. His apprentice looked confused.

"What's in your hand?"

"Something terrible." Duncan replied, dropping them on the ground where they landed in a puddle of warm, crimson blood.

"Duncan, is that Rythian's sword on the ground there?" She demanded.

"Yes."

"And in your hand… a pair of scissors." She remarked. "What happened here?"

"A battle. That I won."

"Duncan, what do you mean?" She asked, but Duncan got the feeling that already knew.

"I killed him. Don't you see it, Kim?" Asked the scientist. "I killed Rythian Enderborn." The final bits of adrenaline wore off, leaving Duncan exhausted and in shock. His leg burned.

Kim stared in horror. "How?"

"The scissors. He didn't see them coming, they were too small. I slashed and-" His voice caught, and he coughed, cough turning into a sob. The scientist hadn't wanted to kill someone. Not after the nuke. He hadn't been going to kill Zoeya. That Rythian had been wrong about.

Kim ran up and put her arm around his stomach. Falling to him knees, the scientist leaned into Kim's embrace, using her for support.

"Duncan, he chose to come after you. You were defending yourself." She quietly commented, holding the scientist.

"Then why does it feel so…maleficent?" He hiccuped, looking into his apprentice's face. "Why does it feel like I deliberately killed a human being that might even have NOT been a full human?"

Kim hesitated with her response. "Duncan…why did he try to kill you?" She peered into his green eyes.

Duncan looked away. "I broke it." He mumbled.

"Broke what?" Was her cautious reply.

Duncan repeated louder. "I broke it. I broke the truce and now I'm going to die because of it."

"What happened Duncan? What did you do?" Kim sobbed, horrified.

"I tracked them down. I blew them up for a second time. I-" the scientist swallowed. "I almost got the Mage. I was going after Rythian."

"But… why?" Kim sat with her hands holding up her friend's head, getting him to look at her.

"He was a monster. I knew what he was, and that he'd kill everyone if I didn't stop him." Duncan clarified.

"And what about YOUR second side, Lalna? Is it right if a monster is killed by a brutal slaughterer, who is ALSO a monster?" She talked back to the depressed man.

He looked startled when Kim mentioned Lalnable Hector.

"How-how do you know about Lalnable?" He stuttered, warily watching the girl's face.

"I hear you going to your lab every night, Duncan. I know that you try to keep him under control every 12 hours while I sleep. No wonder you didn't have a bed when I first showed up here; if you sleep, he'll kill you." Kim explained to the shaken male.

"No. Not me." He shook his head. "He'll destroy everyone around me, and THEN torture me to death. It would be better if he'd just kill me."

If his apprentice was scared, she did a good job hiding it. "See, Duncan? And how was Rythian a monster?" Her quarries didn't surprise the scientist. Of course she wanted to know.

"He wasn't human." Duncan hissed, eyes flickering red for mere seconds before reverting back to shattered pine-green. The mental blow left his ears ringing and vision blurry, as though he was looking through a film of tears. Which he was. His heart ached. He didn't want to be this.

Kim shied away, but the scientist pulled her close to him, needing her support. The girl didn't shy again.

"How wasn't he human?" She asked, stroking his hair like a parent would a distraught child. Her fluxy fingers stuck a little to the blond strands, but he didn't complain. Just having her there was reassuring.

"I don't understand how it happened, but it makes perfect sense. Purple eyes, strong magic, ability to withstand higher injury levels, aversion to the End… Rythian was part Enderman." The man explained through tears of fear and shock. Fear mostly directed at himself. The beast in his head, and heart, battled his defences, but he had to win. For Kim. And also, he'd done enough damage today.

His apprentice nodded, and her next question startled him.

"Does Zoeya know?" Duncan shrugged.

"I don't know." He hiccuped, though the sobbing had stopped. "I didn't tell her."

"Doesn't his own apprentice have the right to know? Also, how'd you find out?" The girl with black hair asked. Duncan's knees felt wet, and when he glanced down, he realized that they were in a puddle of blood, and the warm crimson had soaked into his pants, as well as the edges of his white coat. Kim's white tights were equally stained. His demon fought, encouraging him to rip open the girl and let her red flow join the rest on the floor. The dark pool was so tempting… he almost scooped some up in his hands to bring to his lips…

It was Duncan's turn to pull away from their embrace, terrified. He'd never been around another person during the 12 hours of the night, the worst time for him. The time when it was all the he could do not to be swept away by the creature's bloody will.

Kim gazed sadly at him, her eyes, one a dead purple, one chocolate brown, lending him strength. He sighed.

"What was the question?" Kim pressed her fingers against his lips.

"Hush, Duncan. Go to the lab. We'll talk in the morning." The man shook his head.

"I'm staying with you. I don't have the strength myself. Not tonight." He told his apprentice. Kim stood and pulled the haggard scientist to his feet.

"Come on then." She muttered, lending Duncan her shoulder.

_This isn't just a death anymore._ He realized. _This was a murder. And a direct attack on me_. How could Duncan live knowing that Zoeya was alone tonight, crying and plotting his doom, while he still had Kim.

"Duncan, my question was: Doesn't Zoeya deserve to know, and how did you find out?" Kim repeated, conceding that Duncan was serious about her asking again.

"Yes, she does have the right to know. But I can't tell her. She'll kill me. And I found out from a sample I took. I think it was ether blood or hair."

"I could try to talk to her." The girl offered, helping Duncan out of his coat and into the bed, ignoring his blood-soaked knees. She sat down next to him, and waiting for the clearly panic-stricken man to answer.

"Don't. Zoeya might attack you, to hurt me. I need you." _You're the only thing holding me to this world._ He didn't finish the phrase.

Kim stared into his ghost-filled green eyes, clearly hearing his unsaid words.

"Go to sleep, Duncan. We'll figure it out in the morning."

**See yall soon, same fanfiction time, same fanfiction channel!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter two**

**Row, row, row your boat, gently through the mall! Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Ridge will kill you all!**

**~YOGSCAST Ridgedog**

**Man, this chapter took a long time. I think… Anyways, enjoy this second chapter that I REALLY messed up on the first time I worked on it! :)**

**~EndingFury**

**Hey guys, chapter 2, right here! Have fun reading this! EndingFury and I had fun writing it, and debating about it. LOL!**

**~Featherflower**

Zoeya

"Teep! Help!" The red haired girl called into the blackened sky. Her shoulders burned from carrying the mage at a dead run. The tiny mud shack they had hastily constructed loomed an impossible distance away. "Greenman!" Sobbed the girl, checking Rythian's cold wrist for a pulse. She still wasn't convinced that she wasn't just sending her own hammering heart. But the beating was too faint to be hers. He was alive.

The dinosaur ran out of the small door and darted towards Zoeya. He looked a little confused, but didn't hesitate to pull the mage off Zoeya's shoulders and relieve her of her burden. The girl almost collapsed, but she had to get to the shack. They weren't even close to CaberTown, the shack was their only hope… there was no medical supplies in the shack.

Zoeya sobbed. Teep kept running, but she stopped, mentally figuring out the closest friendly residence that could help her.

Honeydew Inc? Would Xephos and Honeydew be able to help? What if I go find Ridge? Would the arrogant demigod be willing to help?

Zoeya decided that her best bet was Honeydew Inc. If Rythian died, she'd go find Ridgedog. He liked meddling with things beyond the rest of them. Things Zoeya believed were forces greater the Ridge himself.

Shuddering, Zoeya remembered what it would be like for her master if Ridge OP'ed him and allowed him to respawn. For Rythian to remember… everything. Her experience with it wasn't pleasant. Of course, she didn't remember the one from the old world. Rythian did. She assumed there were more for her as well, not just the ones after the nuke and the TARDIS.

And probably more for Rythian. More things he might remember.

I need to go. She decided. Before Ridge is my only hope.

The sky was just lightening into dawn, streaked with purple, pink and orange, when she got to the door of Honeydew Inc.

"Xephos! Honeydew!" She shouted, hoping for a quick answer. But no one replied.

_Zoeya Xephos Honeydew! I need your help!_

Her own words flashed behind her eyes, in glowing white characters. The responses did as well.

_Inthlittlewood What? Zoeya? Are you okay? What do you need Xephos and Honeydew for?_

_Sototallytoby Butt out Martyn!_

_Inthelittlewood Sorry_

_Zoeya it's okay._

_Lividcoffee Oh Notch Xephos Honeydew don't listen to her! Sorry Zoeya!_

_Nanosounds Duncan! Leave her alone!_

_Sparklesbian where are those two?_

_Zoeya guys, please answer its urgent._

_Xephos What is it Zoeya?_

The girl almost fainted with relief when Xephos's words flashed.

_Zoeya come quick Rythian's dying! She sent frantically, grateful for Duncan's crazy communication device._

_Ridgedog Oh dear._

_Honeydew we're coming Zoeya, Ridge unless you're going to be helpful, shut up._

_Ridgedog I am being helpful. I haven't done anything unhelpful._

_Sips_ coming… that's what she said. Sorry I missed this convo what's going on?_

_Sjin just shut up, Sips. I've learned that it's good for your health._

_Mintyminute Sjin! You do listen! Sometimes._

The spaceman and dwarf ran out the door, Xephos still pulling on his red and gold trimmed coat.

"Zoeya, have you got any supplies?" He asked.

"No, Duncan blew them up." She answered quickly.

_Honeydew what the hell Duncan? _

_Lividcoffee I'm so sorry..._

_Zoeya Sorry doesn't cut it you almost killed Rythie! She almost sobbed as she wrote that._

_Lividcoffee I thought he was dead..._

_Rythian no… just… close… Zoeya… don't call me Rythie…_

_Nilesy I'm at you're shack hurry back Zoeya it's not pretty._

Zoeya didn't even hesitate to see if Xephos and the dwarf were following her. At Nilesy's words, she took off towards the shack.

_Xephos We're grabbing supplies we'll be shortly behind you!_

_Zoeya Hurry!_

It was a long way to the shack, and this was her third run tonight. Her breathes were ragged gasps and her feet were bloody and torn, as she had no shoes. Martyn joined her about halfway to the shack, darting out of the forest with all the speed of an elf.

_Kaeyidream Good luck! Beware Duncan!_

_Lividcoffee You don't understand!_

_Nanosounds Not here, Duncan. She'll learn soon._

_Ridgedog Interesting… I look forward to seeing how this plays out._

_Zoeya Is that all we are? Stories with interesting endings?_

_Ridgedog Pretty much._

_Nilesy Debate later Zoeya you've got bigger problems._

_Zoeya I'm nearly there!_

The shack was barely visible. Zoeya's strides were becoming slower and slower, though she struggled to stay running. Martyn kept pace with her easily, though his cheeks and pointed ears were slightly red. He must have ran pretty far before he'd joined her.

"Are you okay?" He asked her, barely breathing any heavier than normal.

"I have to be!" The red head gasped. Her forehead had a sheen to it, and her lungs burned. But she was nearly at the shack. Martyn would be able to help, and Xephos and Honeydew, and if that went wrong, Ridge…

"I'm here!" She cried, looking from the dinosaur, to the pool boy, and finally the unconscious man on the bed.

"He's lost a lot of blood, but I managed to slow the flow down a bit." Nilesy stated as he pressed the red-soaked cloth down to the throat wound. Rythian's normally tan skin tone had turned pale and sickly, almost like tree sap.

"So what do we do now?" Zoeya asked, panic starting to settle in more.

"I can try to heal him with my magic." Martyn commented unsurely.

"Well then tell us what you need!" Zoeya practically screamed.

Martyn winced; she was right in his ear. "I'm going to need 3 red flowers, 6 pine saplings, 1 extremely tall fern and a healing potion. NOW!" Martyn barked at Xephos and Honeydew. The two men were staring at the mage, not believing what they were seeng. They jumped, startled, then ran into the woods to quickly find the needed plants.

"What can I do?" The mushroom girl sobbed.

The Sapling Prince turned towards the bright ginger. "I need you to get a fire going and a cauldron filled with the healing potion on top of it." He commanded in a slightly quieter voice.

A message popped up in the girl's sight.

_Sototallytoby Is he dead yet?_

_Inthelittlewood No, but please shut up Toby so I can concentrate! _

_Sototallytoby Sorry!_

Zoeya wanted to butt into the conversation, but she had a job to do. She grabbed the healing potions out of the spaceman's and dwarf's bags and put them beside her teacher.

"Hang in there, Rythie." She whispered to the man, ignoring his earlier rejection of the nickname. "We'll get you back in right shape soon. Just don't give up on us. On me." The tears threatened to come back, but the mushroom lover pushed them aside, and brought out the netherrack and flint-and-steel.

She dug a hole in the ground and placed the block of magenta into the hole. The flint-and-steel quickly got it burning, and the cauldron decided to finally work for her and settled nicely on top of the flames. She hurriedly poured the healing potions into it bowl-like tool until it was full.

Martyn had been glancing between the forest and Zoeya the whole time. "Where ARE they?" He muttered.

"Maybe they got held up by a persistent skeleton?" Zoeya weakly suggested.

_Ridgedog If he dies I want to study his corpse. _

_Lividcoffee THAT HAS GOT TO BE THE DUMBEST THING YOU HAVE EVER SAID. _

_Nanosounds Duncan! Get back here, and no more messaging! You heard Martyn, he needs to concentrate!_

_Ridgedog In my honest opinion, I don't think he's going to survive. How is NATURE magic going to save a HUMAN?_

_Zoeya SHUT UP! ALL OF YOU! _

_Xephos We got the supplies! We're coming!_

_Nilesy Hurry! He's doesn't have much time! _

Zoeya turned the pool boy. In all of her movements, she had forgotten about him. "How is he?" She demanded, not certain if she wanted to hear his response.

"Too much blood." He murmured. The cloth that he had been holding was covered in what looked like tomato juice.

"We just need a few more minutes!" She cried, staring at the forest along with the elfin-type man, waiting for the dwarf and the spaceman to return.

"We may not have a few minutes!" Nilesy warned, throwing aside the soaked cloth and grabbing another. Rythian's apprentice swallowed a sob.

_Xephos we can see the house we'll be there in about thirty seconds._

_Inthelittlewood hurry up already!_

Zoeya paced the floor, waiting for the men to return. Rythian's breaths were inaudible, and if it weren't for Nilesy still just staring, she would have thought he was dead.

"We're here!" Xephos announced, dropping the supplies on a small counter and turning to the Sapling Prince, eyes glowing a bit.

"What next?" He asked.

"You can go." He answered, throwing the ingredients into the cauldron on mixing them together, with no apparent difficulty, aside from the rigid tendons in his neck. The Sapling Prince was putting more effort into the healing then he was willing to let on. Xephos and Honeydew ran out of the hut.

"How much longer?" She demanded the Sapling Prince.

"It's done!" Martyn exclaimed proudly, holding up a glass vile filled with olive green fluid in it. "We need to get Rythian to drink this healing potion."

Teep helped Nilesy sit Rythian up. Martyn carefully poured the potion down the enchanter's throat. He moaned as the thick and goopy medicine went down his throat.

"Now we have to sit and wait for it to work." Nilesy declared.

_Sparklesbian How is he?_

_Zoeya We just gave him the healing/nature potion. Martyn says it won't take long before the bleeding stops._

_Kaeyidream Why didn't you take Toby, Martyn? You could've used his help with the next step._

_Inthelittlewood No. I don't want him to see this._

_Sototallytoby Why not? I'm old enough, and I'm pretty sure I am NOT going to get any nightmares from seeing a techno-mage bleeding out to his death._

_Teep Don't say that!_

The sudden appearance of the dinosaur on the chat made Zoeya almost scream with fright. She didn't even know that Duncan had given the mute dinosaur one of his communication devices.

_Teep Never say ANYTHING unless you mean it. And besides, would Rythian like it if everyone thought automatically that once he got a wound that it would kill him? He's tougher than you think._

_Sototallytoby You're right. Sorry Zoeya. I wasn't thinking properly._

_Zoeya You are forgiven, Toby. I know what it's like. Now what's this about the next step?_

"The next step is when he wakes up. We will then have to create another potion for him to have after 12 hours, and say the mutterings." Martyn explained to the confused pupil.

"Mutterings?" Zoeya asked, cocking her head.

"The spoken part of the potion." Martyn clarified. "A spell has to invoke the potion into action."

"Do you know when he might wake up?" The pool boy wondered.

"No, although it should be soon." Was Martyn's reply.

_Inthelittlewood He's awake!_

Zoeya, Kaeyi and Toby sat up groggily in their beds.

_Sips What's going on? Who's awake? Besides me anyways._

_Sjin He is talking about Rythian. He's awake._

Zoeya leapt from her borrowed bed at Inthelittlecorp and rushed to the door.

"Wait up, Zoeya! Teep found a portal gun that Rythian apparently stole from Lalna so he left a portal at your shack and one here so you don't have to run back and forth!" Kaeyi cried after the ginger.

"Oh thank goodness!" Zoeya exclaimed. She followed the pink haired woman to the blue portal that awaited their arrival. She stopped in her tracks. "Rythian STOLE a portal gun from Duncan?"

Kaeyi frowned. "That's what Teep wrote."

"Well, let's keep moving. Rythian is waiting for us."

**Keep waiting! You'll see from us soon!**

**~EndingFury + Featherflower**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**It was Featherflower's idea! Not mine! Actually, I forget whose idea it originally was… SPARE ME! I'M TO YOUNG TO DIE!**

**~EndingFury**

******I DIDN'T DO IT! IT'S NOT MY FAULT!  
~Featherflower  
**  
"Hey, Zoeya. I think I can try the spell now." Martyn told her the  
moment she walked in. The girl's shoulders slackened from relief.

"He's awake?" She asked.

"Barely." A voice whispered. She turned to look at the two weak  
purple eyes staring at her. "Honestly, I'm a little surprised I woke  
up at all."

"Me too." She admitted sadly. Rythian smiled, and closed his eyes.

"Already?" Zoeya half pouted, half cried. The Sapling Prince nodded grimly.

"Nilesy and I made another dose of the potion. Pour all but a drop or  
two down his throat. I need to have some to judge the progress." He  
commanded, pointing to a small vial. The mushroom enthusiast obeyed,  
leaving a drop at the bottom of the contained.

"Now I start to spell." The blue-eyed man said, and starting  
muttering something no one else in the room understood. Words that  
made the room seem to vibrate. The syllables resounded off the mud  
walls. Zoeya stayed quiet for as long as she could.

"Is it working?" She burst out. The Sapling Prince did not respond,  
he just continued his muttering. _"__...relegant vulnera sana carne...  
fulciretur os..."_

"Martyn?" Zoeya persisted. Rythian was unconscious again, of  
course, a low moaning sound occasionally stirring his voice, hopefully  
as the spell worked... Martyn sighed, but continued his spell. The  
sorcerer's apprentice was just going to keep bothering him until the  
spell took affect. He knew that.

_"...uti tua magicae potentia converteret..."_ Nilesy looked pained,  
watching the scant remainder of the second dose of the potion, that  
the elven man had especially left there to check his magic's progress;  
bubbled and hissed, though Rythian's condition didn't change. The  
breath hissed between his teeth as he finished his chanting.  
_"...viribos tuis accipe flectere voluntatem. Sana hoc homine." _His  
shoulders stiffened briefly as his own power and energy fed the spell,  
leaving him weak and famished.

"Martyn?"

"I don't know." He said quietly. "It should have been having an  
immediate reaction, as I said the words." The mushroom girl moaned.

"Don't freak out yet!" The blond told her, stifling a yawn. His  
stomach cramped painfully. "The potion helped, and we've got a bit of  
time. I'm just gonna ask one quick question."

Inthelittlewood Hey Ridge?

Ridgedog Yes?

Inthelittlewood You were sort of right about the magic thing... any  
idea why you were right? Nature magic works on humans as well as  
elves.

Ridgedog Duncan knows.

Nanosounds Duncan isn't going to announce it to everybody!

Ridgedog It's that or your boyfriend becomes a murderer. Pick your  
poison, Nano.

"What are they talking about?" Zoeya muttered, glancing from Martyn  
to the wizard and back again, blue eyes wide and upset.

"Your guess is better than mine." The blond replied.

Sparklesbian Stop speaking in riddles and give Martyn an answer!

Lividcoffee Kim, I'm going to tell them. I don't want the blood on  
my hands. Not anymore. However, my information won't save his life.  
Not in any conventional way that wouldn't just do him more harm.

Zoeya What do you mean?

Lividcoffee Rythian isn't human. That's why I blew up your  
Stronghold. I was trying to eliminate a threat to the whole world.

Zoeya Duncan... how isn't he human?

Lividcoffee I'll tell you more in person some other time. It won't  
help you anyways. Good luck, Zoeya.

Zoeya DUNCAN!

Lividcoffee WHAT WAS THAT MOTHER? I'M COMING! Bye guys!

Server Lividcoffee has left.

Zoeya gritted her teeth, then just sobbed.

"That part with the server is always strange." Martyn remarked,  
keeping a careful eye on the unconscious mage.

Parv I don't get it...

Nanosounds You don't have to!

Sparklesbian I don't either, Parv.

Xephos I think I do...

Alsmiffy I'm so confused...

Sips Shut up, Kermit.

Alsmiffy As Kim would say, RUDE!

Rythian Could everyone please stop talking about me?

Zoeya Rythian? But you're not awake…

Rythian Well that doesn't mean that I can't talk in my head while I  
can't hear you, does it?

Nanosounds Lalna DID make them to work while you're sleeping as  
well, you know.

Mintyminute CAN'T YOU GUYS JUST LET US SLEEP? It's like… 6:27! IN  
THE MORNING!

Zoeya Sorry. Can't help it.

Rythian But seriously guys, can we all just go back to bed? And  
leave me alone? I have the major headache here, not you.

"Another 7 hours, Zoeya." Martyn called out to the girl who was  
about to continue the conversation.

"Hm? Oh, sorry. Alright, we can wait." She stared at the Mage.

Zoeya We're going to get you out of this mess, Rythian. Just hang in there.

There was no response. He must've turned it off or fallen into a  
deeper sleep.

"You go get some more sleep, Zoeya. Me and Martyn can stay here and  
watch him. We'll call you over if we need you." Nilesy told the girl.

"No! I'm staying here! This IS mine and Rythian's and Teep's shack  
you know." She replied stubbornly.

The pool boy nodded. "I know. But when Rythian officially wakes up,  
he's going to want the normally energetic Zoeya that he remembers and  
not a tired and sleepy Zoeya that he's never seen before."

The girl considered this. "Oh, all right. But tell me if ANYTHING  
happens. Like, LITERALLY anything."

The Sapling Prince chuckled. "We get it Zoeya. Now go to bed. We'll  
wake you up around lunch time; you look like you need that much rest.  
And I think you do, I should know."

IF ONLY I HAD A MIRROR. Zoeya thought to herself.

She stepped outside the wide open door and closed it, memories  
telling her that Rythian liked it when she closed the doors behind  
her. Around the right corner of the house, the portal back to Kaeyi's  
place stood against the wall. She paced a couple steps back, then took  
off to the portal at a running speed. She jumped through it, feeling  
her atoms breaking apart and reassembling at the destination.

"Zoeya, how is he?" The bubblegum coloured hair girl ran towards her  
friend. She wrapped her arms around her. The red head laughed her  
genuine laugh that hadn't been heard since the past couple of days.

"He's fine now." She answered to her friend.

"Well, come on back to the bedroom. It's time to get a little more  
sleep." Kaeyi led her to the beds once more.

"I have to wait SEVEN hours before they can try to wake him up!"  
Zoeya whined as they walked to the house.

"Well in that time you can get a good morning nap." Toby smirked when  
he came into view.

"Thank you for speaking up, Toby, because I nee you go to and plant  
Marytn's daily tree."

"But isn't that Martyn's job if they're HIS tree saplings?"

"Well then the next time a mob comes stumbling over I'll get you to  
go dance in front of him while I eat popcorn. NOW GO!" She pointed in  
the direction of the house. The almost adult grumbled, but he went  
like a good little boy. The woman turned to Zoeya when she saw the boy  
enter the building. "Where were we?"

Nilesy Zoeya! You can come back!

Zoeya looked up from her lunch of apples at nothing but an apple tree.

Zoeya I'll be right there!

She ran to the portal and didn't stop until she landed at the other side.

"Boo." A whisper made it's way to her ears. She jumped and spun  
around to see who it was. Nilesy stood there with a sleepy smirk on.  
"Got you."

"Ugh!" Zoeya groaned. "Is he awake or what?" They had walked to the  
door but didn't face the man in the bed. Nilesy and Martyn sat on the  
small counter in the shack. looking tired; dark bags fell beneath  
their eyes and were bloodshot from staying up 24 hours without rest.

"Well if you actually turned around and looked at me you might be  
able to figure it out." A melodically accented voice rang through the  
air.

Zoeya jumped once more at the voice's words. She turned around and  
saw him smiling weakly at her light up face.

"Hello Zoeya." He said, still slightly smiling through his mask.

"RYTHIAN!" Zoeya squealed. She threw her arms around her friend. "We  
thought you may never wake up you were out so long!" She gently  
squeezed him. He grunted.

"Can you let go of me now? I think I have some explaining to do for  
you. AND ONLY ZOEYA!" He warned to Martyn and Nilesy, who had both  
perked up from their slouched positions at the mention at some  
explanations. They both slumped down underneath the pressure of not  
sleeping and the magic not working.

"You guys go home and sleep; I'll let Rythie talk to me here. We'll  
be fine." The girl assured the two sleepy heads. Reluctantly they both  
left for the mustard yellow portal that would bring them to  
InTheLittleCorp where a certain pink haired girlfriend and son-like  
teenager waited for them.

"Did I ever tell you NOT to call me 'Rythie'?" The man lying in the  
sky-coloured bed asked her when she had let go of him and sat the foot  
of the bed.

"Oh, yesterday." Zoeya replied cheekily. She grinned. "Now what do I  
need to know about you?" She demanded.

Rythian sighed. "I don't know how to say this… Like Duncan told  
everybody before, I'm not human. At least, not completely human."

"Then what ARE you? And why have you kept this from me for so long? I  
thought we trusted each other…" Zoeya said quietly.

"I DO trust you, I just didn't want anybody to know what monster I  
actually AM!" He moaned, his face going back it's normal hard  
expression.

"Then how does Duncan, out of ALL people who should know this secret  
of yours, know it!" Zoeya snapped, frustrated with her partner all of  
a sudden. "You can't trust ME, your apprentice, when you can tell your  
NEMESIS?!" She shouted, silently thanking Notch that no one was  
present at the couple's fight.

"And now you know how I felt when I discovered that you had a SCIENCE  
LAB underneath Blackrock Stronghold!" Rythian snapped right back. He  
immediately regretted it. One, because it used up a lot of his energy,  
and two, Zoeya had tears running down her face when he talked back to  
her. It looked like what he said didn't register very nicely with the  
mushroom lover.

"Oh that's the point, huh? To get back at me for not telling you  
something that I should've told you?" She demanded, practically  
whispered to him.

"Zoeya…" He wanted to tell her so BADLY about everything that he  
hadn't told her; why Duncan knew already. What he was planning on  
doing later, but he needed the calm Zoeya that he knew and not this  
new hyperventilating Zoeya.

"DON'T TALK TO ME! EVER!" She bellowed at him. She leapt up from  
his bed and faced him. "If you don't want me, then just SAY! Oh wait,  
you don't LIKE speaking your 'secrets' to ANYBODY!" She stalked out of  
the shack, leaving a brokenhearted mage behind in the dust.

"I love you." He whispered to no one but the air itself.

**TIGGER WARNING! TW SUICIDE! DO NOT READ THIS NEXT PART IF YOU CAN'T  
HANDLE IT WE'LL EXPLAIN IT IN THE AUTHOR'S NOTE OF THE NEXT CHAPTER!**

"Greenman? You there or am I imagining Zoeya again?" Rythian called  
into the night. The day had passed and his apprentice hadn't come  
back. The dinosaur stepped out from the shadows. His bow and quiver  
slung across his back.

"Well I'm happy to see a familiar face. It's better than lying here  
all by myself for 24 hours not being able to do anything." He sighed.  
"You what we're doing, right?" He asked wearily. The greenman nodded.  
"Well let's get this over with. Nobody gets to know what ACTUALLY  
happened, got that?" The mute companion nodded once more. "And please  
don't tell Zoeya… I know she wants me to tell her about everything,  
but… this is one secret that she must NEVER find out."

The dinosaur grabbed his weapon off of his back as Rythian prepared  
for the aftermath. He still couldn't believe he was doing this, but  
the blade had been infected with science, and something told him that  
his… other side didn't agree with it. So he was going to die either  
way. He heard the arrow notch the bow and pull back.

Teep You still sure about this?

"Ready as I'll see be." The purple eyed man replied. "Quick and  
painless, right Tee?" The dinosaur nodded. Rythian squeezed his eyes  
shut.

If you listened really closely in the silence on that night, from  
anywhere in the world you could hear the soft thunk of an arrow  
hitting it's mark. A mage's heart.

And if you had let Duncan install his communications device in your  
brain, you would've seen:

Server Rythian was shot by Teep.

**I'm learning, okay? LEARNING. So I am sorry about all the italics and paragraphs that are messed up. THAT is my fault. **

**I am NOT, however, sorry for killing off Rythian. That was actually kind of fun. Wait… DID I JUST TYPE WHAT I AM SEEING? I think my fingers are moving on their own accord. SOMEBODY HELP ME! Maybe Lalnable Hector is possessing me… **

**~EndingFury**

**I told you I didn't do it! Spell means, in Latin (And don't judge me I  
suck at this kind of thing):**

**Banish the wounds, heal the flesh, mend the bone, use thine magic to  
bring back power. Take mine abilities and bend them at your will. Heal  
the man.  
(I'm sorry for any disappointment)  
~Featherflower**


	4. Chapter 4 Repercussions Of Death

**Chapter 4~ Repercussions Of Death **

**So we are literally going to make Ross ****_EAT SHIT_****!**

**~ YOGSCAST Kim**

**Hey guys EndingFury here! We are going to name all the chapters from now on so get used to it!**

**So we said that we were going to explain why we decided to kill Rythian off in such a horrible way… The reason is go ask Featherflower BECAUSE I DON'T ACTUALLY KNOW! **

**But anyways have fun reading this chapter!**

**P.S: Sorry about the chat and symbols. Trying something new for this chapter; tell me if it works. ****J**

**~EndingFury**

{Server} Rythian was shot by Teep.

Duncan could have sworn the whole area of Tekkit-Topia fell momentarily silent at the announcement. But it lasted only seconds before an eerie, keening wail echoed from the crater of the original Blackrock Stronghold.

[Nanosounds] What?

[Ridgedog] This just got intriguing. Can I have the corpse?

[nthelittlewood] What the hell? He was going to be healed, Teep!

[Teep] … I'm sorry.

The scientist took off for the crater. He had only recently gotten back from his 'trip away' and his mind really wasn't wrapping around the fact that his one wish had come true.

Zoeya's wailing had quieted, but the shock and emotion were going to be a problem soon.

He waited for Zoeya to shriek at Teep through the chat, but her only message was:

[Zoeya] Ridge, meet me by the first crater. Please.

[Ridgedog] Of course, Zoeya.

[Lividcoffee] I'll be there too.

[Kaeyidream] Is that wise, Duncan?

[Zoeya] No, let him come.

Duncan pulled to a halt as he reached the crater, seeing Zoeya at the edge of the pit full of stained stones and charcoal. Tears streaked her face.

"Why would he do it?" She demanded as soon as the blind was visible. "Why would Greenman do that?"

"Why don't you ask him?" The man suggested cautiously. The girl looked at him.

"While I wait for Ridge, how about you answer that question?" She sighed. "Rythian was going to tell me what you meant… but I didn't let him. I ran off, yelled at him, and now I'll never get the chance to say I'm sorry."

Kim's teacher wasn't sure what to say to that. "Do you want me to answer?" The redhead nodded.

"Rythian was part Enderman. I thought he was a threat. That he was dangerous. And he was. He was unpredictable. There was a variable involved that I didn't understand. I was getting rid of him to protect the others!" The scientist rambled, having difficulty justifying himself to the spellbinder's pupil.

"Aw… you finally told her." A loud voice scorned. "But alas! It is but too late to save her fallen love. Or is it?" Zoeya stared at Ridgedog.

"He wasn't my love." She told the puller robed demigod, voice hollow and sad.

"Bullshit, Zoeya." He laughed. "Oh, why do I care? What exactly do you want, Mushroom Girl?" The flying man's exaggerated grin frustrated the analyst. But Duncan held his tongue.

"Is there anything you can do?" The girl blurted.

"Oh, I suppose there is… but I want to know why Teep did that. Actually, I already know. I just want to see your reaction. You have 12 hours to convince the dinosaur to talk." Said the ginger-haired man, fiddling with one of the gold clasps on his coat. "See you when you find out!"

"Come on, Duncan. We have to find the dinosaur." The girl said wearily.

"You could just ask him though the chat. That is the only way he'll be able to answer you anyways." He informed.

"I guess."

[Zoeya] Teep, why would you do that?

[Teep] I can't say.

[Zoeya] Then at least come to the crater and hear out my reasons for wanting to know.

[Sparklesbian] You owe her at least that, Tee. I won't say you owe all of us that, because you really don't, but you do owe Zoeya an explanation.

[Teep] Fine. I'll be right there.

"Do you figure you can talk it out of him?" Asked Duncan.

"I have to."

**TEEP**

_Well, I'm going to have to think of something._ He told himself. _Rythian said that I shouldn't tell her, and if I do and he gets OP'd, who knows what he'll do to me if I tell Zoeya. _

He reached the crater where Duncan had blown Zoeya up along with Blackrock Stronghold.

"Hello Tee." Zoeya's greeting was hollow. "Can you please tell me why you did that?"

The green dinosaur pulled a book and quill out of the bag that everybody carried; Sjin's idea.

He wrote _No. I can't. _

"Well can you at least just stay away from everyone else right now? Everybody thinks you're a murderer." She yawned. He nodded in agreement, and turned to go into the forest on the opposite side of the crater. "And Teep?" He spun around to look at the ginger. "I would like to know because-"

_I get it._ The dino wrote. _You want to know because he was your teacher and you guys trusted each other with your lives. Look where that got you. _

Zoeya looked hurt. "Teep-"

[Teep] Don't Zoeya. You want me gone so I'll leave.

And he spun around and left, leaving everything and everyone he knew behind.

**DUNCAN**

"What was THAT?" He said when Greenman left.

"Failure." Zoeya replied, staring sadly at the notebook Teep had left behind. Her eyes shone with unshed tears. "My last to say I was sorry."

"What did he write?" The scientist asked.

"That he promised not to tell." She paused. "And that trusting each other with our lives got us here."

"Listen. I didn't trust Rythian. I had good reasons not to. But I can tell you that your trust in each other didn't get you here. Teep did." The girl nodded.

"I know. It's just, so hard! To be so close…but so far. I have 12 hours still, but Teep is gone, and Rythian will never know that Ridge was right." The last part was a whisper.

"About what?" Duncan asked, feeling a little daft.

"I am- was, in love with Rythian." The scientist nodded.

"What am I going to do?" The girl demanded, brushing tears away from her eyes. The green view screen clicked as it was jostled out of place. Duncan gazed regretfully at her prosthetic arm. Damon Rythian for letting her try to diffuse the Nuke, instead of just taking the fall when the scientist could handle the weight of murder. Damn him for letting his apprentice get hurt. Damn him for being a dangerous variable and for even coming to Tekkit-Topia.

And damn Teep for killing him.

[Ridgedog] Having trouble?

[Zoeya] … yes.

[Ridgedog] Teep, are you being difficult?

[Teep] She wanted me gone. And an answer that I couldn't give.

[Djh3max] Teep, you pansy, you owe Zoeya that answer!

[Trottimus] Yeah!

[Alsmiffy] I third that.

[Sips_] Who asked you, Kermit. Wait, what're we talking about?

[Lividcoffee] Shut the hell up, Sips.

[Sips_] Oops. I'm out of my league again, aren't I?

[Mintyminute] Yeah Sips. You are. Leave Smiffy alone.

[Sips] Fine.

[Ridgedog] Here Zoeya. I'll help.

{Ridgedog} /tp Zoeya XYZ /64 /64/64

{Ridgedog} /tp Teep XYZ /64 /64 /64

And the red haired girl disappeared.

**ZOEYA**

Teep was right next to her. Their surroundings were barren, with only sand, dirt and dead shrubs to be seen. Zoeya pulled out her own pen and paper.

"Teep. In order for Ridge to OP him, you have to tell me why you killed him." She insisted. Teep shook his head and gestured for the quill. The girl handed them to him.

_I promised him I wouldn't tell anyone. Especially you._

"What did he have to do with it?" The girl shrieked. "You killed him! Why did you promise him not to tell why?"

_It concerns only Rythian and I._

"Don't say his name!" The girl yelled. "You aren't… you can't…" and with that, she burst into tears.

_I'm sorry, Zoeya. You don't want to know the answer._

"No I don't. But I have to!" The girl whispered sadly. "Please, Teep. You promised to protect us. All I want to know is why you broke that promise."

_That is the one answer I cannot give._

"So you want him to stay dead, when I have a chance to say him?" The girl cried. "Why did you betray us?" Her voice took a challenging tone.

_I didn't betray you, Zoeya._

"How can you claim that?" Demanded the ginger, eyes shining with tears and hurt.

_Because I was listening to him!_ The dinosaur wrote, expression becoming angry.

"How were you listening to him?" Zoeya was beyond shrieking now. She was hysterical. Above them, a man robed in a gold trimmed coat watched the exchange with interest.

[Teep] I helped him commit suicide!

Ridgedog flew down from his perch the stand between the two friends. "That will be all, I think, Teep." He said, voice pleasant and smooth.

[Inthelittlewood] Oh dear Notch…

[SoTotallyToby] Why would you agree to that, Teep?

[KaeyiDream] He was delirious from pain and blood loss! You couldn't trust what he said!

[Teep] He wasn't delirious and he didn't want to suffer. He asked me to, and I agreed because he was dying anyways.

[Inthelittlewood] NO! He wasn't!

"Aw, how touching. Leave now, Teep." Ridge commanded. The dinosaur complied, leaving Zoeya standing dumbstruck beside the demigod.

**KIM**

"Duncan? Are you still here?" The fluxed girl called out into the crater.

_This is the first time I've _actually _seen this_. She realized.

"I'm here." His rich vocals sounded at the bottom of the pit. Kim carefully flew down the hole with her jetpack and sat beside her friend.

"You wanna hear something that is probably a pretty stupid idea?" She asked him after a minute of comfortable quietness.

"If it's coming from your brain then it _is_ probably a stupid idea. But shoot." He managed to crack a grin at his own words.

The not-so-student smiled her smile. "I have Ridge's taglock." Her slight smile became an evil grin. Duncan sat up from his slouched position.

"You have _WHAT_?" He shrieked in glee, grinning with an evil twist. It made Kim wonder if Lalnable had been in control for a second.

"I have Ridge's blood. And I think we both know what we are going to do with it." She repeated.

"Are you sure that this will work?" Lalna asked when they got back to Panda Labs. They were in the witch circles.

"Positive." Nanosounds reassured. She threw down the necessary ingredients nearby the yellow center piece. She then threw a stone on the chalk marking and waited. A yelp came from somewhere far, far away.

"It's done." She proclaimed after a moment of shock. "I can't believe we _actually _did this."

"I believe we just cursed the one and only demigod in this world." Duncan laughed. "With a curse of insanity. Of course you're not going to get your head wrapped around the idea that we just did something extremely stupid but hilarious."

**ZOEYA **

"Now I'm going to OP Rythian for your currently dying heart, but-AHH!" Ridge was cut off by a short yelp coming from his lips. He fell to the desert and curled up in a ball.

_This is the first time I have seen Ridge show weakness._ Zoeya realized to herself. "What's the matter?" The girl didn't feel very much concern for the man.

"Nothing… just a sudden stomach ache." He winced as he stood back on his two feet. "Now I want something from you if I'm going to do your bidding."

"What do you want then?" Zoeya was starting to get annoyed with Ridge. He kept on buying time with this simple task that only he can do.

"I would like a sort of payment." The demigod smiled coldly.

"I have diamonds on me of you want them." The girl started to pull them out when the man stopped her.

"I need something _much _more precious. I need-AHH!" Another yelp escaped his mouth.

"Ridge. Are you sure you're okay?" Though she didn't really care about the demigod, she couldn't really just sit there and do nothing when someone was in pain.

"Yes. Fine." He hissed, eyes flickering with anger and frustration. Rythian had once told Zoeya to always look into her enemy's eyes, as the eyes are the gate to the soul. She didn't like what she saw in Ridge's. Too cold for what he was about to do. "My price… someone's life. Pick who's. Yours, Sjin, Duncan, Kim, Xephos, Sips, Honeydew, Martyn, Kaeyi, Toby, Nilesy, Smiffy, Ross, Trott, Minty, Sparkles*, anyone. Pick one."

"No!" She cried, horrified. "I'm not… you can't…"

"I can really do what I please." Ridge assured her.

"Not that! Rythian… he wouldn't…" Her voice trailed off.

"I can think of more than one person Rythian would want dead." The man mused. "Duncan, Sjin, Sips…"

"Pick another price, Ridgedog." She insisted.

"Well, 7 is the ghost number so… Ack!" Ridge cut himself off with another cry of pain.

"Why does that matter?" Zoeya asked, dreading his response. Hadn't she already does what Ridge had asked in payment? Teep hadn't even just told her! He's announced it to everyone. Rythian's death was a suicide.

And now she was getting annoyed with his becoming-frequent cries of pain.

Ridgedog plucked a loose strand of red hair from the girl's shoulder. She realized, from a bit of a scientific perspective, and a magical perspective, how dangerous Ridge having that sort of thing was. But, to her relief, he dropped it onto the ground.

"I completely forgot that talking to Teep was your price." Said the ginger haired man, wincing in pain. "Let's go bring back your boyfriend."

Zoeya didn't even protest when the purple-robed man called the mage her boyfriend. She was just glad she didn't have to agree to any of the man's crazy demands.

"CREEPER!" Ridgedog cried out, pointing in an empty space.

"I don't see anything!" Zoeya protested.

"How can you _not_? It's standing right in front of you!" He exclaimed, holding his sword trying to hit what he was 'seeing'.

"You-but… Let's just get this over with." The red head sighed and started following the demigod once more when he was satisfied that the mob was gone.

**Hey guys! Goodbye for now, see (figuratively) you guys all soon!**


	5. Chapter 5 Everything is Back to Normal?

**Rythian. Are you role playing again?  
~YOGSCAST Sjin  
**  
**But does anyone notice there's a corpse in this bed?  
~Early Sunsets Over Monroeville; I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought  
Me Your Love; My Chemical Romance.**

**Hi guys we are back with another long chapter! Sorry for any confusion that may have occurred!**

**~EndingFury**

******I'm assuming you guys got the TW from the last chapter, as EndingFury  
didn't know what to do and she wrote the author's note.**

**I'm gonna go all protective on you guys now.**

**DONT COMMIT SUICIDE, SOMEONE (me) LOVES YOU AND WANTS YOU AROUND AND  
WOULD CRY IF YOU DIED KEEP ON KEEPING ON YOU CAN GET THROUGH ANYTHING  
YOU ATE STRONG ENOUGH OH MY GOSH I MEAN IT OKAY? TALK TO SOMEONE, TALK  
TO ME THERE IS ANOTHER SOLUTION! No, seriously. PM me and I will  
answer and support you I promise.**

**I messed with the server announcements, deal with it.  
~Featherflower  
**

Ridge didn't have to put in any commands to get them back to the hut.  
He just grabbed Zoeya's hand, his fingers cold as ice and rather  
claw-like, and they were suddenly back at the girl's home.

Blood had sprayed a few spots on the wall, and Zoeya made an effort  
not to even glance at the bed, where she knew the corpse would be.

"Meh. Teep could have been a worse shot." The demigod remarked,  
clearly studying the body. The girl squeezed her eyes shut. Dead  
colors rippled around the blackness of her closed eyelids. A slight  
noise came from where Ridge was standing, something of a cross between  
tearing and slipping, like pulling something out… of a body.

The arrow. Zoeya felt sick.

"Please, sir. I don't want to know." She whispered. A soft chuckle  
emitted from the demigod's throat, eerie enough to make the girl  
shiver.

"I didn't really ask you." He replied, then continued muttering to  
himself. "Respawning should heal the wounds. Duncan's was a little  
messy, it might scar."

There was a rustling of fabric as it slipped away from part of a body.  
"That won't go away, to no one's surprise." He muttered as he pulled  
the fabric back up, hopefully. Zoeya assumed he was talking about  
whatever was beneath Rythian's mask. She would normally have  
protested, but this was Ridgedog. He really didn't care about privacy.

"Well, I'll stop making you wait." He said finally. "And please tell  
me you can see the zombie behind you."

Zoeya turned around. "Nothing there, Ridge." He shook his head and  
returned to his work.

Ridgedog /OP Rythian  
Server Rythian joined the world

The man disappeared as a sharp intake of breath sounded from where he  
had been standing. As rapidly as they had come, the commands to undo  
the OP appeared.

"Rythian?" Zoeya called, a little hesitantly. After all, the last  
thing she had told him was 'don't talk to me.' What if he was still  
mad about their fight?

"Zoeya?" His voice was raspy and weak. "Oh, Notch! Where are we?"

"Um… in the mud shack we built when Duncan blew us up… again." The  
girl replied, opening her eyes and turning towards the brown haired  
man. His eyes were glowing a bit. His expression was one of fear and  
shock, and something she couldn't quite place. Anger? Disgust? Was it  
towards her?

"Survive… death… jumping… ambush… oh Notch!"

"What?" The apprentice demanded. "What are you talking about?"

"You don't remember..." He mumbled, sitting up. Zoeya ran over to him  
and gave her teacher a hug. He wrapped his arms around her, closing  
any distance Zoeya had left.

They sat in silence for a while. Rythian was shivering from cold, and  
his teeth chattered uncontrollably. Zoeya could understand that. He'd  
just come back from the dead. His body couldn't have been warm after…  
how long has it been? Also, his lean physique couldn't be helping him  
retain or regain body heat. His apprentice pressed against him, trying to share her warmth between them.

Finally, the girl's curiosity prompted her to ask Rythian a few  
things. "Don't remember what?" She paused, and asked a more important  
question. "Why? Why would you do that? Why would you do that to  
yourself? Me? Us?" Tears sprung to her eyes, though some could be  
blamed on the relief of having him back.

"I didn't want it dragged out. For me, or anyone else." He muttered,  
lips nearly brushing her ear. "What did you give Ridge to convince him  
to bring me back? And how did you find out what Tee did? I told him  
never to tell anyone!" His breath was the only thing about him that  
was still warm, though some of the chill had left him.

He seemed a little wary of her judgment. He'd made a strange, maybe  
even a bad choice. Now, he was scared of her reaction. The girl had to  
choose her words carefully for fear of saying the wrong thing and  
making him feel worse.

"Well…" Began the redhead. "That was the price. I had to force  
Greenman to tell me why he shot you." She didn't ask him why Teep  
couldn't tell her. The one he trusted. Didn't he trust her?

Of course he does. You ran out on him before he had the chance to tell  
you anything. Her own mind betrayed her and whispered. Guilt filled  
her stomach as she looked into the man's violet eyes. I almost lost  
you forever. She realized. And the last thing we would have done was  
fight. Another thought, lighter and sillier, came to her head.

Now we're even. This and the nuke.

"And so I'm back… but I remember things I don't remember doing." He  
revealed voice shattered and sad. He clearly could see the troubles  
in her eyes, but decided not to bring them up.

Zoeya stared at him, not understanding what he was saying.

"What?" The apprentice demanded. "Is this the stuff about surviving  
and death and ambushes?" Rythian nodded.

"What do you remember?"

"Blood." The man replied, and didn't add anymore until Zoeya prompted  
him again. "Your blood. On my hands."

**Kim's POV**  
"Duncan. I think we're going to pay for that." The girl whispered,  
fear settling in after about an hour of excitement. "Ridge won't let  
us get away with that." Her eyes widened with worry. Beside her,  
Duncan showed the same fear.

"It's, it's okay. We'll be fine. Ridge won't hurt us." The scientist  
muttered. Softly, as an understatement, he added, "I won't let him."

"Can you really fight off a demigod?" Kim's voice wavered.

"Quia Vobis." He said. For you. Kim had studied enough of the  
powerful, ancient language to know that. Martyn was the best at that  
tongue, and Rythian, but she and Duncan had done their best to learn  
it.  
**  
****Ridge's POV**  
He didn't know what was happening to him. He was seeing things that no  
one else could see. And the monsters didn't hurt him, which went  
beyond the common sense of the monsters in the world.

He bounced around to see how everybody was or if he needed to OP  
anybody else who had suffocated in a wall or had been struck by lightning.

But everywhere he went he saw monsters. And they were becoming more  
and more frequent and bigger. The people he talked to said that he was  
going crazy.

_But what if I am?_ He wondered. When he told the citizens of his  
father's land when he passed by them, they looked at him crazily and  
worriedly. They thought he was going insane.

"Wait a minute…" He suddenly realized what was going on. "Of course  
I'm going insane because someone put the curse of insanity on me! And  
there are only four people who would do that. Maybe five, but Rythian  
was dead and I don't actually know if he could duplicate the curse of  
insanity's affects anyways...

"Nilesy… no, he is too obsessed with his cats and pools to try to do  
something stupid like this.

"Lomadia… she could potentially do this to me; she was the first witch  
on this planet that hasn't been created with everything else. But why  
would she? She wasn't even involved, I've barely spoken to her!

"Then that leaves Nano and her master. KIIIIIMMMMM!" He shouted  
and teleported to the soon-to-be-gone Panda Labs.  
**  
****Kim's POV**  
"He's coming here!" The masculine shout rang through the morning air.  
But it came too late. A man appeared out of nowhere with cold fury set  
in his eyes.

"KIM!" He bellowed. The petite woman shrank back into the shadows of  
the home that she and Lalna had built together. "Undo the curse that  
you set on me!" He drew his sword and approached her.

"Alright, just-just put your sword away!" She stammered. He considered  
this for half a second and then did what the witch asked. But first he  
paused to stab a few wisps of air.

She ran off towards her hut, leaving Ridge to follow her. He seemed  
suspicious. She through open the door and started searching trough her  
chests.

"Where are you going?" He demanded.

"I need the supplies for the de-cursing." The young witch explained to  
the demigod, slowly growing more confident; Lalna was with her now,  
rummaging through the chests in the 'witch's hut' that he had made  
more his apprentice.

As she dug through the chests, panic settled in. A spare taglock for  
Ridge was present, which she grabbed, but nothing else. "I-I can't  
find anything. It's all gone. I don't know who took the witch stuff  
but it's definitely not here." She gestured to the man to look for  
himself.

"Then take this." He said, brushing his hand on the mossy floor. The  
supplies needed for the rite of removal suddenly appeared where is  
hand had lay.

The fluxy girl took the ingredients gratefully as the demigod brought  
out his sword again and killed whatever his eyes deceived him with.  
She rolled her eyes. If the dark ginger haired man noticed he didn't  
react to the movement.

As she jogged with her arms full of ingredients, she thought about  
what would happen if Ridgedog decided to use his full extent of his  
powers. No one knew, and if he did that because she had cursed him  
with a not-unusual curse of insanity, what would he do for bigger events that would happen in the future.

**RIDGE'S POV**

"Put them down. Now." He hissed at her. Duncan stood beside her; his  
hand was on her trembling shoulder.

"You can do this." He mumbled to her. The demigod could hear him, of  
course. She took a shaking nod, and threw the de-cursing components  
down near the yellow center marking. Lividcoffee handed her a round  
stone that he had picked up off of the ground and she threw it to have  
it bounce on the yellow chalk. A low growl sounded.

"It-it didn't work. I don't understand. Why didn't it work?" Kim said  
mostly to herself, confused.

Ridge was also extremely confused. She should be able to do this…  
unless somebody tampered with this, I don't understand.

"Why didn't the spell work, Nano? Did you get Lomadia to intervene  
with the spell?" Ridge's voice grew louder with each word.

"No-no I didn't. All you saw is what happened. Of something like that  
happened I don't know about it!" The sorceress protested in panic that  
was just not going away today. "You might have to get Lomadia to help  
you with this one because obviously you are too powerful for me to  
fix-"

For the seventh-hundredth time in those 24 hours the male drew his  
glistening-with-real-fresh-monster-blood-sword and shoved the tip of  
the weapon where her chin met her throat. He pressed it hard enough to  
have a small ribbon of red dibble down her delicate skin as a victory.

"You will fix this or you will die. And you are not allowed to contact Lomadia or Nilesy or anybody else who knows witchery." He growled at  
her. "You have a day."

"I'm afraid that won't do." A component in the puzzle piped up for  
once. Ridge glanced over the smaller human's shoulder.

"Lalna? What do you think you can do to me that will be able to affect  
me?" He sneered, never breaking eye contact with his 'slave at the  
moment.'

**DUNCAN'S POV**  
"This." The demigod dared glance up from Kim to the clearly enraged  
man. Kim struggled to see over his shoulder.

The scientist's eyes were laced with glowing red, though pine-green  
was still dominant. A heavy iron hammer was gripped in his grey-gloved  
hand.

"Do not threaten Kim." His gaze burned with rage. "Now leave, Ridge.  
No one summoned you here, and no one wants you here. You don't have to  
be here when we remove the curse. Collecting the ingredients from  
scratch will take time. More than a day. If you can't wait, go get  
Lomadia or Nilesy to do it."

The demigod's eyes narrowed. "You have 24 hours. Like I already said.  
And I'll stay here."

"You can't threaten me in my own home, Ridgedog. Get out. Go away! You  
do not want to mess with us tonight." Oh Notch. We were so wrong. This  
shouldn't have happened. His throat felt thick, and even with the  
ruthless thing helping, he was terrified.

"Duncan, I actually need more of his taglock to cure him." The small  
girl muttered. The blind had almost forgotten she was there, and  
thankfully, Ridge had too. The demigod's sword was now held level with  
the scientist's chest, rather than pressed into the girl's throat.

"Well Ridge, you heard her, I'm sure. Kim, take more than you think  
you'll need, because he's leaving." The blond put all his force behind  
his words.

"Very well, Livid, as you wish."

"What! No! Shit!" The purple robbed man vanished, leaving Kim holding  
an empty kit and Duncan swearing at the sky.

"Duncan... we're so screwed. We're so- OH NOTCH! Get- um... are you  
okay?" She shied away, staring in horror at his eyes.

"Crap. Give me a moment." He squeezed them shut.

Enough. The thing protested, battering at his cautious control. He  
fought back, struggling to push the thing away. Stop! Leave me alone!  
We'll attack Ridge soon enough, but leave me alone for now! The thing  
backed off resentfully.

"Okay, Kim." He whispered, opened his eyes and addressing the black-haired girl.

She was still staring at him in horror. Puzzled, he wondered what  
exactly was wrong. Were his eyes still red? Unlikely. Then what was  
she afraid of?

"Tell me you weren't just cooperating. Please. Tell me that much." The  
man's cheeks flushed. Why had he thought that was a good idea?

" Um... uh... I..."

"Oh, Notch! Duncan. Do you want us all dead?" He voice was shrill, and  
she was shaking from fear and rage.

"I had it under control!" He promised.

"Until you killed someone! Again!" He winced, her words cutting into  
his stomach like shards of glass.

"Kim... Lalnable didn't almost kill Rythian. You know that. I did."

**So how was it? Next chapter will out soon and please do not forget to review!**


	6. Chapter 6 Painful Rendezvous'

_This… has been a long time since we've posted. The next chapter had already been started, so hopefully it won't take as long._

_~EndingFury_

**Ship High In Transit, I'm a lazy author! I've had the beginning of  
this for a week now and am just typing it now! (For those of you who  
didn't get it, that's how we got the word shit. It was written on the  
sides of bales of manure. First Ship High In Transit, then an  
acronym, SHIT.)**

**Sorry to my random victim of choice- err, character! And for leaving  
Rythian and Zoeya like that. That was my intent from the start of this  
OP business.**

**...SpiritedandLoyal says I watch too much anime. (I can't binge  
watch it at home that's the only difference between me with Code Geass  
and you with RWBY!)**

**ugh Rythian you sound like Lelouch stop writing these words for me! I  
will never be sorry for all the times I've killed you and any that I  
have planned, so stop! Dammit!**

**~Featherflower**

**Rythian's POV**

_A battle cry, a scream for help that wasn't coming. This has to be  
done! Flashing swords, brilliant red blood, a booming cannon and a  
cruel laugh from the spectator of his own show. Why was Ridgedog  
always there?  
_  
He opened his eyes to Zoeya's blue ones, inches from his own. In  
spite of what he had said just seconds before the strange, implacable  
memory had gripped him, she showed no fear.

In his eyes, crimson still stained his finger, dripping off his hands  
and running in rusty rivulets down his arms.

"I'm sorry." He whispered, black cloth brushing his lips as they  
formed the words.

"For what, Rythie? I don't remember this! You're sorry for something  
that according to me, never happened!" The girl replied.

"Not just that. Lying to you. Never explaining what I meant to." A  
wracking sob ripped itself from the man who showed no pain's throat.  
Regret filled him, and he hated the feeling.

Regret, and something less known to him. Something he hadn't felt for  
quite some time, until he met Zoeya.

Love.

"About that..." Zoeya began. "Duncan kinda filled me in about...  
you." Her finger traced the line of him mask, and the scar running  
through his eye. It was painfully obvious what she was referring to.

"My greatest secret, and my enemy is the first one to figure it out."

"But you didn't tell him."

"No." He opened his mouth to say more, but lost his nerve and had to  
close it again.

"It explains a lot. Really, I feel silly for not having guessed it."

"You wouldn't guess it, because it doesn't seem probable. Or  
possible. And I didn't tell you, because... I didn't want anyone to...  
anyone to know... what I was."

"No more lies, okay? We'll get through this all." He nodded.

The blood was still on his hands, it's sharp tang filling the room,  
but the girl to whom it belonged was with him, and he could ignore it.

But the questions remained: What had happened, and why had he killed  
the girl he loved?

**Sparkles* POV**

The world was never quite quiet in Tekkit-Topia. There were always  
the sharp twang of skeleton's bows, the hisses from creepers, and  
quite often, the screams of other members of the world.

Maybe that was why the house Area 11, (and Beckii) had built was so  
far away from the rest of the others.

But tonight, it wasn't far enough. Or Ridge was intent on proving  
what an obnoxious asshole he was. Maybe a mix of both.

Either way, it was enough to keep the singer awake. And frustrated.  
But what could he do against a demigod who wanted to be a jerk. He  
half wondered who had pissed Ridge off, and hoped for Rythian's sake  
that it hadn't been Zoeya. Notch knew what the arrogant,  
slightly-more-than-man would have messed with while OPing the mage.

Sparkles* sighed, and climbed out of bed. No way was he getting any  
sleep tonight, even if Ridge decided to shut his dumb mouth.

The artist stormed out the door, only to have the ground fall out  
from under him, and hear the air whistle past his ears.

And then the sickening crunch of shattering bones when the  
ginger-haired man hit the bottom.

**Duncan's POV**

Kim wasn't speaking to him, and he couldn't really blame her. He's  
been an idiot, thinking THAT was a good idea.

But wasn't he going to do it again soon? In 24 hours?

Why? Because he was an idiot.

The whereabouts of the demigod were not unknown. Duncan could hear  
him from Panda Labs. They could have gone after him, but it would  
still just get them attacked.

No, the scientist would just have to wait for Ridge to come back, and  
fight the insane man off.

Of course, Ridgedog was no mere man. But neither was the scientist.  
He wondered if he should use the fact that no one in this world was  
as they seemed to his advantage, and call for backup.

And that would involve a lot of grovelling, and a few near death situations.

But it was probably worth it, to have his enemy on his side.

Provided there were no scissors around. Duncan decided that was the  
best option.

"Hey Kim? I'll be back in a bit, okay?" It took a while, but the  
small witch answered back, voice tentative,

"Okay." He didn't stop to wonder why she sounded like that. He headed  
off in the direction of the mage, after checking the map he had made.  
Zoeya and Rythian were halfway between his castle and the ruins of  
their own.

This was going to require a lot of grovelling. And apologizing.

**Nilesy's POV**

"Notch, it's stormy out!" The pool boy remarked. Lomadia sighed, and  
stroked Mr. Owl's damp, feathered head.

"Good weather for witchcraft." She muttered. "Anybody we meant to  
curse with the curse of insanity?"

"You had mentioned me… but I think that was a joke."

"No it wasn't, but I'll let you off the hook." The blonde replied.  
Nilesy couldn't deny that he was thankful for that. Lomadia was a  
little too good at casting the curse of insanity, and she liked it  
almost as much as Kim did… wait. That was impossible.

He half-wondered what Kirin-Dave would be doing in this weather, then  
decided he didn't really want to know.

"Hey Lom?" He called. "I'm going to visit Martyn and Rythian." He obviously meant them as well as the people they lived with.

"Why Martyn?"

"He did some pretty crazy nature magic, without assistance, and… you know his thing with failure."

"Oh yeah! Okay!" Nilesy hadn't mentioned that he knew Xephos was coming to visit them, and didn't want to be the third wheel... Again.  
Maybe after checking on Rythian he'd go see Ravs. The pubmaster was probably horribly confused.

Really, Rythian should go visit his friend in CaberTown as well, but that didn't matter.

**Rythian's POV**

Zoeya was snoring softly, still pressed against his chest. He smiled,  
feeling a lot calmer than before. Her rhythmic breathing helped  
balance his, and their conversation had helped quite a bit.

He was about to drift off to sleep himself, well there was a knock at  
the door. A tentative knock.

"Who is it?" He called, trying not to move so he didn't disturb the  
sleeping girl.

One of the voices he had expected the least answered. "It's Duncan."  
There was a long pause. "Can I come in?"

"What do you want?" He growled, shaking Zoeya's shoulder. She sat up,  
blinking sleepily. He kept his arms wrapped protectively around her,  
though it was half to stabilize himself.

"What is it, Rythie?"

"We have a visitor. Your job is to make sure I don't finish what I  
started earlier." He whispered. "Come in, Duncan."

Suddenly, the red haired woman was wide awake. "Duncan? Why did you  
let him in?"

She said that just as the blond entered the hut, and the mage didn't  
know whether he felt bad or not.

"Rythian… I…" the words seemed to be caught in the scientist's  
throat, and the Mage scowled.

"Say what you came to. I'm not interested in your apologies. And  
thank Zoeya for that fact that you're alive."

"Why?"

"She's the only reason I didn't just go finish what I started." The  
blond was wise enough not to comment on what had actually been the  
outcome of that idea.

Imminent death. But not Duncan's. His own. He brushed the thought  
away and turned his focus back to the man in the white lab coat.

The blond took a deep breath. "I need your help."

"You what?" He asked, voice calm. "You blew us up twice, pretty much  
killed me, and now you want my help? Who the hell do you think you  
are?" In spite of his calm tone, rage filled him. Duncan was such a little bastard.

"I- I- I- I'm sorry! But- you know why I did it, _Enderborn_!" The last  
part was thrown as an insult. Zoeya gasped, but Rythian had been  
expecting that one.

"Really_, Lalnable_? You think you have something on me?" He snapped.  
Duncan stepped back as though struck. "Yeah, you want to remove one  
monster from the world, you came to the right place. But maybe before  
you do you should look in the mirror."

"Why are you here?" Duncan snarled. "Where you endanger everyone?"  
Vibrant purple light bathed the man's face, and Rythian forced himself  
to calm down until it dimmed considerably.

"I endanger people? I've never killed anyone. Never blown anyone up.  
I'm not perfect, not human, but I can keep it under control. What  
about you? Why are you here, Lalnable?" He retorted.

"Kim." He answered without hesitation, not even considering the  
accusation the mage had just fired. Rythian simply glanced at the red  
head who had nestled back into his chest, and was watching the  
exchange with wide blue eyes.

"Oh." Muttered the green eyed man. "I see."

"Answer the question. How can you come after me, when I have never  
done anything? I- I couldn't stand the thought of-" His voice broke,  
shattering like glass.

"It was never Lalnable, Rythian. It was always me. Just me."

"Then you can't judge me, what have I ever done to you? To anyone?" He forced his voice to stay level and even. Yelling wasn't his style. Duncan bowed his head.

"Will you just listen? You win, Rythian. I'm a monster who thought I was helping. I didn't know much about you, and when I found out… about you, I- I jumped conclusions."

"Clearly, you jumped conclusions." He smirked. "Also, you seem reluctant to speak of my family around me, yet you fill Zoeya in the moment I was dead. Why is that?"

"I don't actually know as much as you think." Duncan admitted. "So... can I ask... family?"

"Don't ask me how, as I've often wondered, my father was one of those... monstrosities, and my mother a human woman."

**Kim's POV**  
What to do, what to do. First, Lalnable shows up for just three seconds and almost kills the demigod. As much as anybody would like to do that job, nobody was stupid enough to try to finish the man who's father was Notch.

What have I done? The small sorceress asked herself for the 37th time: she'd been counting. Why had I thought that cursing Ridge was a good idea?

She was an idiot. That's why.

Duncan hadn't told her that it was a bad idea, that they should curse someone else.

They were _both_ idiots.

"Hey, Kim? I'll be back in a while, okay?" Duncan softly asked her as he approached her.

She thought about this. Would it be better for her for him to leave? And then there was Ridge's threat. What if Lalna was actually planning on going to visit the other witches in the land that they knew of?  
_  
__Kill him._

The fluxed up voice inside her head always told her to do that.

_Why should I?_ She mentally challenged it.

But once again, the voice didn't answer to her call.

Then she realized Duncan was still there, waiting for an answer.

"Okay." The hoarse reply came out. He nodded, looking a bit concerned, but took off using his jet-pack and glider.

"Good bye, Lividcoffee."

She said as she watched the scientist glide off. Then she turned to her home.

"Better get to work; it's time to upgrade." She thought aloud as the fluxed up woman snapped on a pair of white science gloves that she kept in her pocket.

"Let's kick some Ridge butt."**  
****  
Nilesy's POV**  
"Hey, Martyn? You okay?" Nilesy asked as he knocked on the wooden door.

"Who is it?" He asked through the obstacle.

"It's me, Nilesy. Can I come in and hang out for a couple of minutes?" The pool boy replied, slightly muffled.

The door opened before he could finished: a bed ragged Martyn stood before him. He stared at the man standing outside of the structure with bloodshot eyes.

"Come in." He muttered after a few minutes of each man staring at the other one, wondering what they were thinking about and why this was taking so long.

"Want any wine? Beer?" The King of the Saplings offered the poolboy.

"Wine. So how are you these days?" Nilesy asked, hoping to start a friendly conversation.

"Not good." Was his reply. Martyn sighed as the two man walked into the kitchen. The host took two mugs and a bottle of home-brew and started to pour. The guest accepted the amount and drank half the cup in one gulp, becoming immediately dizzy.

"I've never failed before. My magic has always worked with humans. Well, they have to be fully human, fully animal or fully animal."

That made something click in the witch's brain. "What if Rythian ISN'T human?" This statement made Martyn confused. "Oh come on, Rythian always wears a mask, never talks about his past, it just fits!" He paused. "Plus Duncan said so."

"You believe Duncan? Out of _all _people?" Martyn folded his arms in front of him, leaning back against the kitchen counter, placing his now empty mug down beside him.

"Well, yeah! After all, he_ is_ a scientist!" Nilesy argued.

"That doesn't say _anything_!" Martyn protested. "Anyways, if he actually isn't fully human, then I can't heal him."

"So you feel better then?" Nilesy dared to hope.

"A little. At least now I can reassure myself that it wasn't something that I did." The Sapling Prince reasoned with mostly himself.

"Well, I am now off to Rythian's." Nilesy put down his mug of home-brew and saluted the man. He laughed.

"See you later then." Martyn remarked, turning his back to the poolboy, walking farther into the structure.

"See you later." Nilesy repeated, and stepped out the front door.

******

It was a long walk to the shack from Inthelittlecorp. By the time he got there, he needed to use to repairing spell again: his shoes were falling apart for the seventh-hundredth time. He was hungry as well as ready for a nap. In his bed though, nowhere else. The alcohol before hadn't helped.

The door was closed, but a heated argument inside the dirt and cobblestone hut could be clearly heard from the outside. As he got closer, he could hear more of what was going on in the interior of the house.

"I don't care Duncan, that's not allowed!" A shrilly voice cried.

"But Zoeya, it's just a little bit of science! It's not going to hurt him!" Were the two lovebirds fighting over nonsense again?

Wait, why was _Lalna _in there?

"Hey guys? Can I come in? It's me, Nilesy!" He shouted over the giggling mushroom princess and knocked loudly on the door.

The atmosphere quieted suddenly, however he heard the footsteps of someone crossing the small singular roomed shack.

"Nilesy!" A man had opened the door.

"Rythian? But I thought that it was only Duncan and Zoeya in here!" Nilesy protested, extremely confused.

"Well, when it comes to arguing about how they're going to try to make me fully human again, it gets quite loud." The Mage smirked, opened the door further and steeped out of the doorway.

"Come on in."

He glanced around the room to see Zoeya and Lalna sitting on the opposite sides of the bed.

Nilesy went into the house completely and walked to the counter where just 12 hours ago they had nature magic ingredients sitting on the wood, waiting to be used.

Rythian shut the door behind the both of them.

He ran a hand over the counter, finding a small, decaying leaf. He would talk to Martyn about that. He turned around to face the rest of the group.

"So you're trying to think of a way to bring Enderboy here back to full humanity?" He asked, pointing his thumb towards 'Enderboy'.

"One, don't call me that. Second, no sitting on the counter. Zoeya, why didn't _you_ catch him doing that before I did?"

"'Cause I am currently in the middle of a staring contest." She replied.

"With no one." Rythian smirked at the mushroom princess.

"Yes I am." She protested.

"Ah ha! I made you turn around!" Nilesy laughed at the Mage and techno-Mage.

"Whatever." She grumbled, going back to staring in the distance.

"And third," Rythian continued with his previous conversation, "Yes. They're having a… discussion-let's leave it at that-about how they want to 'cure' me."

"Lalna here wants to put human DNA into him until the monster is out." Zoeya burst out to the poolboy.

"Who's DNA?" And what monster?" Nilesy asked the three of them.

"Well… It's hard to explain… and I really don't want to tell the story right now…" Rythian hesitated with speaking to the man.

"I have this theory that if I add human DNA to him that the other thing inside of him will be pushed out and then he will be completely human again." Lividcoffee explained to the confused soul.

"Except for that I'll have someone else's genes in me instead of a mob." Rythian pointed out to the scientist. He was still standing in front of the one and only exit out of the building.

"Well yes but…" It was Lalna's turn to hesitate.

"I forbid you Lividcoffee to stick another person's DNA into Rythian!" Zoeya shrieked, jumping up from off the bed and jabbing her hands onto her hips.

"That's his job, not yours!" Nilesy told her and rated a death glare from the mushroom lover. "Sorry…" he shrunk back underneath the counter.

"For Notch's sake, get out from there!" The only female in the room snapped.

"Yes ma'am." All of a sudden he understood why Rythian kept on telling him not to get on Zoeya's bad side. Not a pleasant experience.

"Well then, I forbid _myself_ from getting DNA put into me." Rythian said, slightly smirking at the redhead and the water-obsessed man.

"Well who's the victim?" Nilesy asked when he was standing upright again.

"Well I was thinking I'd give you mine." Duncan offered.

Silence.

"_WHAT_?" All three shouted at the scientist in sync.

"Well if I'm going to be messing around the genetics and monsters then I'm willing to take the risk." Livid cried, throwing his hands in the air in frustration.

"I will _not_ have YOUR DNA in _my_ blood." Rythian closed the argument with the one sentence and a cold glare at his former nemesis.

"But-" Duncan protested.

"No 'buts'." Rythian held out his hand as if he was stopping someone. Which he kinda was.

"I am not getting more mixed DNA into me and that's final." He continued.

"Well then what are we going to do?" Zoeya said.

"Nothing." The witch spoke up. Everyone turned to him. "There's nothing we can do."

**Martyn's POV**  
The King of the Saplings hung at home. When I say home, I mean in the tallest tree in area. That's where he was.

Well, this is life then. He thought to himself, settling down in the branches, hanging upside down from a thick branch like a sloth.

Out in the distance he saw the upside down Area 11 settlement.

I should go visit them again sometime. He pondered with himself.

He watched the world upside down as Sparkles*, the lead singer of the band, stormed out of the house.

And fell into a hole.

And sadly, screams didn't flip upside down.

"Sparkles*" the nature spirit cried to the man who was far, far away.

But he didn't hear him.

He _couldn't _hear him.

Martyn scrambled down the dark oak and ran as fast as could to his singing companion.

"Sparkles*! _Sparkles*_!" Martyn shouted at the top of his lungs. While running at full speed of course.

When he reached the fall point, he stopped to look at the recent messages. Nothing about Sparkles* falling to his death.

Well that's good news at the most. He pointed out to himself.

He stumbled to the crater in the ground where his pal had fell.

"Sparkles*!" He gasped. "Are you okay?"

"Martyn!" A wheezy voice drifted up from the crater. The Sapling Prince nearly fainted with relief.

"Sparkles*! Thank God, how did you get down there?" He called, feeling very happy that his buddy was still alive, but worried that he wouldn't be able to get him out.

"I jumped in here on purpose. _Get me out of here_!" Sparkles*' voice dripped with his usual venomous sarcasm.

"Soon! Very soon!" Martyn answered the singer.

"Well hurry up for Pete's sake! It feels like all my bones are broken!" Was the scream the floated its way up to the King of the Saplings.

"Maybe because they are!" He shouted back, a small grin on his face.

He then set out to work on rescuing the ginger.

Martyn raised his hands by his hands, using his nature magic to conjure a thick, sturdy vine in front of him. The soil split where it popped out and the ground trembled a bit.

He raised his left hand a little higher and a second vine beside the first one sprang from the ground and spiralled as far as the first one went. Then smaller vines started to twine the two together, creating a leafy ladder. A third one also flew from the dirt, but didn't entwine with the ladder.

The ladder gently swooped inside the crater along with the individual plant. Martyn climbed down the tool that he had created after he had lowered his hands. He would have to hurry though; whenever he wasn't controlling whatever he made, it disintegrated into moss pretty fast.

The nature spirit found a shattered friend.

"Oh Notch, on Notch. Sparkles*, can you hear me?" He cried, lifting his left hand once more, bringing the single vine towards the ginger-haired man and wrapped it gently around the singer's torso.

"Martyn?" The man groaned.

"Sparkles*, hang on! Just hang on!" Martyn said loudly, slightly panicking as leaves began to fall off the ladder.

Once the man was secure, Martyn had to climb up the breaking ladder with one hand: the other one held Sparkles* life in it.

Literally.

He just managed to get one foot off of the ladder and onto solid dirt when the vines fell from underneath his remaining foot. He jumped out and onto soil and brought Sparkles* into his arms; the vine that held the ginger was also disintegrating.

Martyn used the energy left in his fingers to full up the crater completely.

The Sapling Prince sighed with victory even though now would have to wait a little bit for his energy to store up again.

They were still alive.

**Zoeya's POV**  
"What do you mean, 'there's nothing we can do?'" she asked, raging like a forest fire on the inside. She wanted to help Rythian be who he once was. But if she couldn't, did it really matter? Was she going to love him any less?

"Exactly what it sounds like." Nilesy replied to her question. "We have to leave him as he is. We can't do anything to change him."

"I'm going for a walk. I need to clear my head." Zoeya declared, standing up and headed for the door. Rythian made a move to follow her outside but she stopped him.

"I'm going alone." She told him. He started to protest, but she moved out of the shack and shut the door. Inside she could hear Lalna asking the Mage.

"What was that about?"

"I have no idea." Was Rythian's reply.

"Just leave her. She wants to be alone so let her."

"Since when were you the girl expert Nilesy?" Duncan criticized. The witch.

"Lomadia."

The usually bubbly girl had enough of listening to the boys, so she started to walk away aimlessly.

But her day was about to get a lot worse instead of better.

_Stick around for another chapter and review!_


	7. Chapter 7 Death Battle

**It's not cheating, it's science!  
-YOGSCAST Duncan**_  
__  
Sorry that Zoeya's POV is so small. It got split in half from the previous chapter, if that helps. Enjoy this chapter that the title describes so clearly about!  
~EndingFury  
_  
**Hey guys! I did almost nothing! (Maybe I should write more of this than murders and read less manga and A Song Of Ice And Fire. Meh.)**

**UPDATE- HOLY CRAP I DID SOMETHING!**

**-Featherflower**  
**  
****ZOEYA**  
"Zoeya! Zoeya!" A familiar called from afar.

"Martyn? What are you doing here? And what are you carrying?" A thousand questions raced through her head.

Until she saw the body.

"Help! It's Sparkles*; he fell a long way!" Martyn panted when he reached her.

"What? When, how-" Zoeya started to ask but Martyn cut her off.

"He needs help. NOW." Zoeya took the man from the Sapling Prince and nearly dropped him he was so darn heavy.

"Let's go." She said confidently.

They ran as fast as Zoeya could because she was the one who was carrying the fully grown man.

When they reached the door, Zoeya kicked the door so hard that it ended up handing down from the bottom hinge.

"Zoeya, wha-" Rythian started to say but was cut off once more.

"It's Sparkles*. He's almost dead.

**KIM**  
She worked as hard as she could to find out why she couldn't cure Ridgedog.  
That is, until a message popped up from Lalna.

{Lividcoffee} Kim, get to Rythian's. NOW.  
{Nanosounds} Why? And do you have a portal gun?  
{Lividcoffee} Yeah, I'll pop down the red one here and you go through the blue one.  
{Nanosounds} For once you remembered which portal's where.

10 seconds later, Nanosounds' atoms were forming into their complete figure over by Lividcoffee.

"Kim!" He cried when he saw her and gave her a small hug.

"Duncan, what's going on? What's wrong?"

{Kaeyidream} Martyn? Is everything alright? Where are you?  
{Parv} Does anybody know where Sparkles* is?  
{Honeydew} Sparkles* is missing now?  
{Lomadia} What's going on?  
{Rythian} EVERYBODY SHUT UP AND CALM DOWN!

Those who were with the Mage turned and half-gaped at him.

{Rythian} Martyn, Nilesy and Sparkles* are with us but there are now seven of us over here and I will not hesitate to kill ANYONE who shows up uninvited.

More silence and fear for the man.

{Rythian} And Teep get your butt over here.  
{Sjin} Hey guys should I put torches or glowstone in my house?  
[Server] Sips has left the game  
[Server] Mintyminute has left the game  
[Server] SJIN!  
{Sjin} Nice knowing you all!  
[Server] Sjin has left the game  
{Turpster} Well that was interesting. I'll go bring them back here.  
[Server] Turpster has left the game  
{Xephos} I'll never understand this world.

"So then this is about Sparkles*? What happened to him?" Kim asked as she flew with her buddy to find another.

"Yeah," Duncan explained, taking out his glider. "Martyn says that he fell down a hole that no one knows how it got there. He's also been in and out of conscience. He doesn't say anything besides groan in pain.

"So then what is everybody else doing to help him?" The girl asked, them both landing near the shack.

"Everything we can." That was Zoeya, walking half-calmly towards Flux Buddies. "Nilesy and Martyn are both getting out potions and plants." She turned to Kim. "You're needed." She nodded and started to big with the others. Only then did she realize that the door was knocked off of the top hinge and was hanging sideways and down off the bottom hinge.

"What happened to the door?" She questioned the mushroom princess as she slowed down to a halt.

"I kicked it." Zoeya replied simply. Kim slowly turned to the girl with wide eyes.

"You KICKED it?!"

"Yeah."

Reminder to self: Never anger Zoeya.

"Kim, let's go!" Lalna called to the dazed woman.

The two girls followed the man more closely to the shack only to be stopped.

"Martyn, Nilesy and Kim are allowed in here. Everybody else is out, including me." Rythian practically snarled with frustration at the three.

"What!" Zoeya and Duncan exclaimed.

"You heard me. You two, and I will be standing out here ready to get retrieve anything that they might need. Understood?"

Both human beings nodded.

"Good. Kim, go ahead." The Mage stepped out of her way and she stumbled into the already cramped shack.

"Hey Kim! Has it really been 24 hours since Rythian was lying on that same bed?" Martyn called without looking up from his inventory bag.

"Unfortunately, yes." Kim answered with a sad sigh.

Sparkles* groaned in his sleep.

"Hang in there buddy. Witchery and nature magic should be enough to get you back to full health. Speaking of which, have you got any regeneration potions on you?" Nilesy spoke to the injured man and the fluxed girl at the same time.

"Um…let me check." Kim grabbed her own inventory bag off her shoulder and looked through all the items in it.

"No, but I might at Panda Labs!" She replied after a quick search.

"Go check. Wait, before you go, can you grab Duncan and bring me some moss and leaves from flower plants?" Martyn ordered her.

"Alright." And she flew off to the portal that led back to her base.  
**  
****MARTYN**  
Please be fully human Sparkles*. He thought vigorously as waited for the plants that Flux Buddies would bring him. He already knew that Rythian wasn't fully human, so now all he had to do was pray that everybody was. Except for Hat Films of course. Nobody knew what happened to them that made them like what they were.

"There Martyn." Duncan cried and dumped an armful of moss and leaves on the counter.

"This is like Rythian all over again." He breathed to the Sapling King.

"Of course it is." Martyn smirked as he plucked the leaves out of the mass of vegetation.

"Nilesy, I have 5 potions of regeneration!" Kim said as she crashed into the wall.

"Ow." Was all she muttered as everybody inside and outside laughed at her misfortune.

"Very funny. I'll make sure that I'll laugh at you when you fall down a crater." She snarled as she shoved the potions at the more experienced witch.

Everything was silent once more as they thought of their friend that lay too still on Rythian's bed.

"Hey Nilesy?" Livid began, "Why wouldn't a curse lift?"

"There are two reasons. One, you may need to perform the lifting curse many times before it actually works. Second, you might not be a strong enough witch." He explained and dumped all the potions into one huge mixing bowl.

Kim thanked him and left for Panda Labs, saying that she needed to do something at the Flux Buddies lair. What, she never said.

Martyn just shrugged it off as he dumped half of the leaves of the flowers into the potions.

After all, Flux Buddies were always doing things that were strange.

I hate this kind of stuff. He realized. At least when I constantly have to do it. He stuck his head out the door.

"Rythian, go get Toby. I need his help." The man sighed, and ran off. "Oops! No one else was supposed to come here! Oh well!"

Honestly, he didn't really care if anyone was supposed to be there or not. He was doing the healing, and he was too freaked out to be worried about the annoyed mage.

"Nilesy, get a cauldron set up." He ordered. The poolboy complied, using the same hole for the fire as Zoeya had dug.

Martyn started adding the ingredients, as quickly as he dared go, without mixing things up.

Rythian returned with Toby while the potion was boiling. "No one else, right?" He seemed tired…

Also, it hadn't been long enough for him to get to InTheLittleCorp, and the portal had been removed. How had he gotten here with Toby so quickly?

The Mage went back outside, and the kid standing next to him gasped.

"Holy shit that was scary."

"What?"

"He teleported here." Martyn felt his eyes bug.

"How?"

"Hell if I know, Martyn! Anyways, you needed some help?"

"Yeah, I gotta do some healing magic." The elf replied. Toby nodded in understanding.

"So you're not being stupid this time?" This provoke the man to smack Toby upside the head.

"Watch it." He warned. Toby rubbed the back of his head. "Be thankful you didn't see Rythian."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. You ready yet?"

"No! C'mon, Toby. You know how this stuff works." Martyn scolded, glaring at the boy.

"Oh yeah! Sorry! Anything I can do?"

Martyn stirred the contents of the cauldron. "You can shut up!" He suggested.

"Fine."

**DUNCAN**  
The moment Kim ran off to Panda Labs, Lalna decided to follow. It had been 12 of their allotted 24 hours for curing Ridge. Of course, they had no tag lock, but they should be at the labs and not bring Ridgedog's fury down on everyone else too.

Rythian would not appreciate that, even if the only thing the demigod would destroy was a little mud hut.

Also, he'd kill everyone else too, so that wouldn't win the flux buddies any brownie points.

When they got there, Lalna was in for a shock. Ridge was waiting, sword in his hand.

"I told you you weren't to talk to anyone else about it." He growled, and seemed to have stopped batting at the invisible creatures. However, he was wearing pretty heavy armour.

"We weren't. We were helping Sparkles*," Kim argued, "he fell a long way."

"I know. That was… amusing." Ridge chucked.

The small woman looked ready to slap the ginger before her. "You did that?" She demanded, eyes narrowing.

Ridge laughed. "Of course!"

Duncan felt his anger flare. "You think it's funny, toying-"

"With the lives of humans? Yes," Ridge interrupted, "quite so."

"You sick, perverted son of a bitch!" He yelled. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Ridge pretended to think about it. "Quite a bit, I believe. Including the fact that I'm cursed with the curse of insanity, thanks to you two."

"We have 12 hours still." Kim said, jutting out her chin, though it may have just been so she could look Ridge in the eyes.

"Aye, but you broke one of my rules. You weren't to go to anyone for help. You went to Nilesy. I heard you ask him." The demigod smiled cruelly. "So I've come for you now."

"And you think we're just going to lay down and die?" Shit, I never talked to Rythian! He set his converser to private and sent a frantic message.

(Lividcoffee) Rythian! I need your help! Ridge is after us!  
(Rythian) I really hate you. Give me a minute

Rythian appeared beside the scientist in a shower of purple sparks, about a minute later. He clamped a hand over Duncan's mouth before he could ask questions.

"Rythian. Why are you interfering? I would have left you and the redhead alone! You should be grateful and leave. After all, I did bring you back to life!" Ridge scolded.

"I know how to make my own decisions. Also, you messed up your respawning anyways, and mixed up my mind and memories! Why should I be grateful? I may hate Duncan, but I hate you more." Rythian said, voice calm.

He removed his hand from the scientist's mouth.

"I think you fear me more than you fear the scientist."

"I fear no one," Rythian growled, "particularly not Duncan." The scientist had to laugh at that remark. "Also, if I feared you more, I'd probably have sided with you. That would be the smart thing to do."

Ridge looked a bit angered by the man's reply. "You'll regret that, Enderborn," He promised, "just like Lalna will regret the curse."

"Or you'll regret being such an ass!" Lalna said, smiling.

"We'll see," Ridgedog promised, "since I have to say I'm glad you picked someone so emotionally unstable for your ally, Livid." Beside him, Rythian stiffened.

"No," he gasped, "no. Stop. Please!" He sounded so desperate. Lalna wondered what he was talking about.

"It's rather funny to hear someone like yourself begging." The demigod laughed. Turning to glance at the man, Duncan saw that his eyes were squeezed shut and his hands were pressed over his ears. He was muttering, things about blood and canons and being sorry.

"Leave me alone!" Rythian didn't sound strong anymore. He sounded fragile and upset, his voice quavering.

"Rythian!" Lalna yelled. "What has gotten into you?" Ridgedog laughed.

"He can't hear you. He's stuck in memories he didn't know he had." The demigod laughed like that was a joke.

"Look what you're doing to him!" Kim protested. "That's not fair!"

Ridge looked dead at her. "Since when am I fair, Nanosounds?"

And that was when things really got strange. Rythian collapsed, like dead weight. Kim trying to run over and catch him, but just stumbled and nearly fell herself.

But that wasn't all. The moment Rythian started to fall, another presence touched Lalna's mind.

/Don't freak out, it's just me! And ignore the other voice, he's an ass on a good day./

"Ryth?" Lalna gasped, grateful that it would sound like he was just concerned about his ally. \What's going on?\

/I can't stay in my own mind, he's pretty much shattered it. I can help more from in your head. Hopefully, once Ridge is gone mine will right itself out again./

\I object to the insult I took earlier./ Rasped another voice.

/No one cares what you object to. Particularly not me./ Rythian snapped, like it was a practiced line.

\Is that…\

\He calls me his Enderside. I guess that's what I am! And why the hell did you pull me here too?/

/Apparently I look really dumb,/ Rythian began, /because the reason is obviously if I leave without dragging you with me, you'll wind up in control and we'll all die./

\Only trying to annoy you, Rythian. I knew that./

/Of course you did./

Lalna frowned, not quite able to focus on everything at once. Nano and Ridge were having a conversation, but he couldn't get his attention on it.

\Is this a normal occurrence?\

/Sadly, yes./ They both answered. /At least these conversations./ The Mage added.

\Okay…\

/Pay attention to what Ridge is doing./ Rythian told him, and the presence of the man lessened, allowing him to focus on the world and not the confusing conversation in his head. However, he could still hear the Mage and the Enderside arguing faintly.

"Oh, but Kim, I vaguely remember Livid saying he'd fight me!" Ridge was saying. "I'm curious to see how that will end. Perhaps if he dies, I won't kill you… or Rythian, whatever happened to him."

The aforementioned mage growled, but only Lalna could hear him.

"I'll do it, you ass," Lalna declared, "I'm not afraid to beat you."

\Actually, you are./

/Shut up already!/ Rythian groaned. /You can't even do anything to Lalna, or to me from here!/

\Doesn't mean I have to shut up./

/Shut up! Sorry Lalna!/

Lalna was starting to really feel bad for Rythian. He put up with this on a regular bases. And also, the mage'd said something about taking control? So it was probably worse.

Then he realized he really shouldn't be pitying Rythian, because the man would kill him if he knew that's what Lalna was doing.

\He already does! We can read your thoughts-/

/I swear to Notch!/

\Go ahead!/

Rythian sighed. /He's got a point. I can read your thoughts. But right now I don't care. Defeat Ridge./

\All the time, or just-\

/All the time, if I put my mind to it./

\Damn.\

"Lalna, are you even listening?" Kim shrieked, startling the scientist. He glanced up, trying to figure out what was going on.

"…no…" he admitted.

"Well, that's good," Nano muttered, "you can leave now, Lalna. Take Ryth with you." She said that a lot more loudly.

"How dumb do you think I am?" He demanded. "On second thought, no one answer that. But I'm not leaving! I'm not letting Ridge hurt or kill-"

"Kill." Ridge said simply.

"-kill you just so that Rythian and I can leave safely! Not going to happen!"

/You know, she sort of reminds me of Zoeya./ Rythian mused. /But that makes you myself. So pretend I didn't say that./

\What? I'm nothing like you! We've both proved this!\

Rythian just laughed. /Good to know I'm not the only clueless person out there./ he remarked.

"So what do you propose, Lalna? And where is Rythian? I can't sense him where he should be."

Rythian ignored the question, not that he really would have been able to answer. Or maybe he could…

/I could. I don't want to./

"You wanted a fight. I'll give you a fight." Lalna replied, hefting his hammer out of his bag.

"Zero interference?" Ridge checked.

"None from the outside." Lalna promised. Ridge just grinned.

"That's where Rythian ran off to," he noted, "but fine. The Enderborn can help."

"Don't call me that. My name's Rythian." He protested, through Lalna's mouth, though it was his voice.

\Ryth, that's weird!\

/I know. That's why I only did it once./ Rythian replied.

"I'll call you dead, once Lalna's dead." Ridge snapped.

/Tell him I don't die when my host does./

Lalna repeated the message, then frowned.

\Hey!\

Rythian went to reply, but was interrupted by Ridge.

"Don't sass, your body's right there. Rather easy to kill it. And then what will you do?" The Mage didn't have an answer for that.

"Now, Nano, you can't be allowed to interfere. So…" Ridgedog didn't do anything visible, but the next time Kim tried to move, she found herself stuck to the ground. "I'll leave your voice, because I want to hear you scream when he dies."

/He's overconfident./ Lalna repeated what Rythian said.

"No, I'm just confident in my abilities." The Mage and Lalna had a few comments on that, but kept them to themselves.

"Anyways, any last words?" The ginger asked.

"Yeah! Prepare to die!" Lalna growled, tightening his grip on his hammer. Sadly, he'd lost his sword in one of the chests, and hadn't yet found it.

/Moron./

\Thanks.\

Ridge raced forward, and Lalna prepared to block a fury of slashes. Instead, the sword was thrown at him, barely slow enough to see, and nearly ran through his stomach. He felt it pierce the skin, standing hopeless, until someone cursed and he simply wasn't standing where he had been to seconds ago.

/And what are you going to do now that you can't take control- OW! Hey! Stop that! You little shit!/

\Did you- we- just teleport?\

\Yes./ The Enderside sounded grumpy.

/I'm gonna wind up with a black eye./ Rythian complained. /That was not nice./

\What are you two doing?\ Lalna asked, all while turning back to Ridge. He'd gone and recollected his sword. "I'd forgotten about Rythian," He admitted, "a mistake I won't make again."

/Normally, we have a bit of a battle of forces after I do that, hence why the rule is shut up when I teleport, because I can't get distracted. But it can't take over anything while I'm not even in control, so it decided to just attack me./

\That was gratifying./ Lalna tuned them out, after offering his thanks to the Enderborn. Minimal blood had soaked into his shirt, rather than what it could have been.

This time, Ridge ran at him and actually kept the sword in his hand. The blows were hard to see, and he struggled to knock them aside with the hammer, even with Rythian helping, moving his hands up to the ones the man couldn't see.

It was a rather scary feeling, honestly, to not be in control of ones own limbs. But it helped a lot, since Rythian had a tendency to notice vital strikes Lalna didn't.

/I have a lot of practice. Enderman and the Enderdragon are sneaky./ He supplied. /Duck!/ Lalna crouched down and felt the blade swish over his head. Then he bashed his hammer on Ridge's foot. Rather rude, but effective. The man howled as the armour covering it bent out of place.

The demigod whipped his blade around, and slashed it across Lalna's left arm. The cut stung like fury, and his entire limb went numb.

/Good thing you're right handed,/ Rythian remarked, /now stand up!/ He complied.

Ridge was still swearing about his foot, but Lalna just did his best to ignore the pain in his arm. He refused to whine like the demigod was.

/Stay on the defensive, unless you think you're faster then him. Trust me./

\I know.\

Ridge flew at him again, and this time, Lalna could tell he'd chosen the wrong weapon. A hammer against a blade wouldn't end well.

Unless he could pound his way through the demigod's defence, which could happen…

/Hey! Focus!/ Rythian scolded. Being so distracted, the scientist missed the first strike, and the Mage didn't manage to move them out of the way. He earned himself a slash across the cheek. He hissed, the sound scaring him a bit, and lashed out with the blunt, flat end of his weapon. His attacks failed to even touch there target, as Ridge batted then away with an easy flick of his wrist, then reacted with another stinging slash, tearing a wide, bloody line across Duncan's chest.

Lalna gasped, pain that was burning hot and icy cold at the same time riveting out from the tear. Ridgedog took advantage of his opportunity and kicked the man square in the chest, knocking him onto his back.

/Sorry!/ Rythian called. /And you, stop that!/

\Why should I?/

Rythian growled, but didn't answer.

Even with Rythian's aide (that hadn't really come for this strike, but that was fine), and the other thing trying to help from where he was still suppressing it, Lividcoffee was powerless against this attack. The hammer skidded out of his grasp and settled a few feet away. Rythian tried to teleport them away again, Lalna could feel it, but Ridge only chuckled.

"I told you I wouldn't fall of the same thing twice, Enderborn." The dark-haired man straddled Duncan's chest, pinning the scientist's arms to the ground with his knees. The blond twisted and tried to get free, but Ridge was too heavy, and had the advantage of gravity and a whole bunch of other stuff.

His sword cast away, Ridge drew a dagger from beneath his coat and traced it down Duncan's face, across his left eye and down his jaw. The blond held perfectly still, knowing that if he struggled, the small blade would easily bite into his skin.

But wasn't that going to happen anyways?

Sure enough, the blade was forced into his face, splitting the skin apart as Ridge ran the cutting edge up the line he had previously traced. Duncan squeezed his eyes shut, silently praying that the demigod wouldn't damage his eye with the dagger.

Warm blood flowed freely down the scientist's face and he forced himself to open his eyes to see the next attack, which was a stab straight between his eyes. Twisting out of the way, the blade ran simply against his scalp, cut another bleeding gash.

This needed to end.

Now.

Rolling to the side, he flipped the position so that Ridge was underneath. At the same time, he reached out and grabbed his hammer off the ground. Fear and rage glowed in the demigod's eyes. Red lacing flickered in Livid's own green ones, and his own strength was replaced by a blinding wave of anger as he brought the mallet down towards Ridge's skull…

…at the same time that his enemy's unrestrained arm moved and plunged the dagger straight into the scientist's exposed stomach.

He gasped, the blow still falling on Ridgedog's head, spraying blood and grey matter all over his already stained face and coat. Rythian's presence fled, only for him to return properly, in his own body, with Kim in tow.

And Duncan fell back, eyes wide, mouth clenched shut, hands shaking as they pressed against the wound. Rythian pushed his hands out of the way and stuffed a wad of cloth against the hole in his stomach.

"Focus on breathing." He ordered. After hearing him in his head so often, it was strange to hear the Mage speak out loud. Lalna took a deep, shuddering breath.

"Ryth," he gasped, "you were there. I'm dying, aren't I?" Rythian glanced at Kim, who didn't seem to have heard the question.

"Not if I can help it." He insisted.

"Can you help it?"

Now the mage looked ashamed. "Probably not." Lalna sighed contentedly, reaching for Kim's hand. She held it rather tight, her flux stained hands shaking almost as much as his.

"I think I'm okay with that, Rythian." He admitted. "Look what I've done, just recently! I killed an asshole demigod, I lost one enemy," Rythian smiled at that, for once Lalna was sure, "and I've taught an amazing apprentice." The blood had soaked the cloths Rythian was holding.

"Don't give up yet!" The Mage told him angrily. "You're not done yet!"

/I can try to save you like I did Zoeya, but it might not work./

\I understand. That one had to do with feelings, didn't it?\

/…yes./

\Tell her. Before something happens and you can't.\ The Mage gave a slight nod. The hands pressed against his stomach grew uncomfortably cold, even through the cloth. Purple wreathed the fingers. Rythian was muttering something.

"I-it's okay, Duncan, you're… you're going to be fine!" Kim promised.

"You're right," the scientist whispered, "you're going to be fine."

The pressure on his stomach lessened, and Rythian sat back slightly, still seeming angry. The purple faded, and Rythian slumped in defeat.

"You too!" Kim insisted, not noticing the change in the masked man's behaviour, though Lalna knew what it meant.

/You've got a minute, at best./ The voice didn't even startle him. /Say goodbye. I'm sorry. You're right. You lost an enemy today. I'm not your enemy, and you aren't mine./ He understood. The Mage wasn't angry with him. The Mage was mad at himself.

\It's fine.\

The scientist smiled weakly. "Keep working on your witchery, okay Kim?"

"Duncan? What are you saying?" She gasped. "What can we do? Rythian, do something!"

"There's nothing to be done." The man's purple eyes shone with regret. "We're safe, but this- this is the cost."

"Then I don't want to be safe!" Kim said stubbornly.

"It's okay, Kim," Lalna began, "death's only a new adventure to a well organized mind."

"Your mind isn't well organized!" She sobbed.

"Then it's a mystery. I've always liked mysteries."

"No! Duncan, stay here!" Kim cried.

But now the world was fading, and it vanished into black before he got the chance to say anything else.

[Server] Ridgedog was slain by Lividcoffee  
[Server] Lividcoffee was slain by Ridgedog

**KIM**

Slowly and cautiously, Rythian coaxed her fingers to release their grip on Duncan's hand. She felt numb. The technomancer lifted the scientist's corpse from the ground.

"To the labs?" He asked quietly. Kim nodded, grateful that Rythian was here. One, because she was in no state to do anything right now, two, because she wasn't strong enough to carry the body anywhere.

{Nilesy} Why'd they do that?  
{Nanosounds} it has to do with the removal of a curse  
{Lomadia} you cursed Ridge? You idiots!  
{Rythian} You guys, shut up! You aren't helping right now!

Nano looked gratefully at the Mage, who seemed rather angered by the comments.

"Come on, Kim. Just ignore them." He gently told her as everyone who had the chips started to join in on the conversation.

She nodded, and bit her bottom lip to stop herself from crying.

"Why?" She suddenly blurted when they reached now her house. Rythian just turned to her and listened to what she had to say silently.

"Why did Duncan have to do that? I mean, it's my fault that I took the tag lock and that it was my idea to curse Ridgedog, but why did he have to attack the demigod when he probably knew somewhere in that crazy brain of his that he wouldn't win!" Her defences against her emotions broke and her mind shattered emotionally. She fell to her knees on the stone entrance way, put her head in her hands and cried until she couldn't have spilled tears if her life depended on it.  
_  
__Please review!_


	8. Chapter 8 Catching Up

**Who are you, and what have you done with Duncan?  
~Yogscast Kim**

**Hey guys! Featherflower the no-longer lazy author here! Catch my Linkin Park lines! They're from "Easier to Run."**

**So, you remember how ENDINGFURY (not me) killed Rythian? Back a bajillion chapters ago? Yeah. That was part of an agreement. Ridgedog was mine to kill, Ryth was hers. She cannot deny this the suicide thing was entirely her fault. (No I didn't say he had to die somehow LOL what are you talking about) and I just decided to kill Lalna too cuz I was bored. (Also, I wrote that bit in church. At least the first copy of it.)**

**DROP THE DAGGER AND LATHER THE BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS ROMEO!  
~My Chemical Romance, The Sharpest Lives (that's what I told EndingFury back when she was deciding how to kill Ryth and that's how I feel now)**

**A whee bit of suicide being discussed in here, be careful. I'm not trying to upset people, but I'm gonna go all parent on you guys again (I'm not a parent, I'm barely in high school, though that doesn't mean anything. Still, not a parent.)**

**SUICIDE IS NEVER THE ANSWER, AND BY NO MEANS AM I ENCOURAGING IT! (Also, it's not the brave answer. You can always find the strength somewhere to face the day. If you haven't, keep looking!)**

**ZOEYA**

The scientist and the demigod were dead. While she hated to admit it, Zoeya's main concern was Rythian. He'd vanished from where he'd been standing beside her, and hadn't reappeared until after Ridge and Lalna were dead (though he wasn't here yet, so he'd just given an indication as to where he was).

Poor Nano. The fluxed witch was the entire reason the Zoeya felt so bad for mostly just being concerned about Rythian. Rythian was alive. Rythian would be coming back 'home' soon.

Lalna wouldn't be coming back, especially since Ridgedog, the only one with the power to respawn, was dead, and had been the scientist's opponent.

The thought sort of freaked her out. No more respawning. If you died, you were dead. End of the story.

(Rythian) Zoeya, I'll be back soon, okay?  
(Zoeya) no problem

He would be back soon. He wasn't hurt. For some reason, she had to keep repeating that to herself. Nilesy, Toby and Martyn were still in the shack, talking, but she could barely hear them.

(Zoeya) do you want any help?  
(NanoSounds) No thank you Zoeya.

So she had to wait. There was nothing for her to do to help Nano and Rythian, and nothing she could do to help Martyn, Toby and Nilesy.

She sighed, sitting down against the wall of the house. These past few days had been long, stressful and chaotic. She was exhausted...

"Zoeya," a gentle voice was whispering, "Zoeya, wake up!" Zoeya blinked sleepily, seeing a pair of startling purple eyes inches from her own. The Mage seemed to be feeling like she had before she fell asleep, lines etched into his forehead and around his eyes. Dark bags under his eyes made him look feral and gaunt.

"Rythie?" Without even thinking, she threw her arms around the Mage, burying her face into his neck and shoulder. Rythian's chin rested on her shoulder, and he returned her embrace.

"It's okay, Zo," he whispered, "it's okay." In spite of knowing he was okay, she was nearly crying with relief that he was back.

"What happened?" She asked. "You disappeared, and next thing I knew people were dying and I was so scared…" she pulled back a bit to see his face again. "I was so worried about you."

"What happened… a lot happened. Lalna, Ridge and I got into a fight, obviously. It's fairly self-explanatory, and I never got the context of why Ridgedog wanted to kill him and Nano," Rythian answered, "and I'm sorry I worried you. Now come on. Sparkles* is okay-ish, they moved him to InTheLittleCorp." Rather than making her stand up, Rythian scooped her up and carried her into the small house.

"How long was I sleeping?" She asked, yawning.

"A few hours. You'll need more," he began, sounding concerned about her, "I came back and found you curled up against the wall, but the bed was occupied anyways, so I couldn't move you anywhere. If you've got a kink in your neck, I guess it's my fault." He muttered, nudging the broken door out of the way with his foot and stepping into the mud-walled house.

"It's okay. And I'm sorry about the door." She yawned again, snuggling into Rythian's chest. He still seemed tense, lean muscles rigid and jaw seemingly clenched, which she assumed was right. She'd gotten good at guessing at his facial expressions and even knowing when he was smiling or anxious from how the mask sat. Also, looking up, she could see the bottom of his jaw from the gap between his chin and neck, where the black cloth didn't sit. He was agitated, and she couldn't really expect any different.

"It's fine." She listened to the sound of his voice, enjoying the musical tone it had. She loved his voice. Rythian sat down on the bed, and sleep claimed Zoeya again.  
**  
****RYTHIAN**

He must have drifted off shortly after Zoeya, as he woke up with the red head still cuddled into his chest. She was snoring softly, and he smiled, trying not to wake her.

He was surprised he'd managed to sleep, so soon after his adventure with death. Death left sleep rather unappealing.

He wondered how Sparkles* was doing. He wished he'd been able to help more, but since using the End's magic and other forms to save Zoeya, he hadn't been able to use it in such a manner again.

Rather frustrating, really. Maybe the magic reflected his emotions more than he'd like to admit.

He flinched as cold fingers traced the long, jagged, white scar that now ran along his neck. "Zo?"

"That's all that's left." She murmured, sounding almost amazed. "All that's left of the wound that would have killed you. Though Ridge had said it wouldn't even be this bad."

"Had I let it." He replied, remembering the twang of Teep's bow. "Had I been brave enough. And scars are nothing new to me. They're all over my hands and arms. One on my neck won't be that strange." He didn't add that there was a lot more left mentally than physically. Thanks to Ridge. Wounds so deep they never show, they never go away. Physical was a lot easier to get rid of. Whatever he did, Rythian thought, it's bringing back these memories I wish I didn't have.

"I think you're brave. Just not in that situation." Zoeya told him. I'm not brave. Was his immediate thought. I can't even tell you how I feel about you. Instead of saying that, he sighed.

"I hurt you. That's not brave, hurting you is a coward's work."

"You're brave to me." Zoeya insisted. "One action doesn't change that. You're too hard on yourself."

Rythian shook his head. "Considering I only want to keep you safe, I myself have a tendency of hurting you. This isn't the first time. It's not fair to you. And it was a big action."

"Stop it, Rythie. I don't care. I don't care how much you think you hurt me. Life can't all be sunshine and roses. I've done some bad things that hurt you, too. I built a science lab in our basement! I lied to you about being able to diffuse a nuke. We aren't perfect. We're never going to be. And I'm fine, because you're back!" She said, still nestled into his chest, though she was looking up at him, her blue eyes wide. "Now relax. Everything's going to be okay. I can feel how worked up you are just from leaning against you."

"I was there, when Ridge stabbed him." He blurted all of the sudden.

"I know, Rythie."

"No, really there. In Lalna's head. Ridge didn't even say anything, but he shattered my mind and I had to flee to Lalna. And I was there when Ridge buried the dagger in his stomach, and I couldn't do anything."

Her blue eyes grew wider. "Oh…" she muttered, not seeming to know what to say.

Rythian took a deep breath and tried to relax a bit. Zoeya frowned all of the sudden. "What happened to your eye?"

"Damn!" He cursed. "It really did give me a black eye!" The thing laughed.

"What?" Zoeya asked, finally sitting up. "What hit you?"

Rythian tried to think of a way to explain it. "Something in my head. It doesn't make sense to me even, and I'm the one with it in my head."

"I'm just going to end up confused if I ask questions, aren't I?" Zoeya asked.

"Quite possibly." Rythian admitted. "It doesn't matter, it's only a black eye. I'll be fine. Oh, by the way, Teep's here again. He set up a little shelter outside. And he found Willow and Ghost Jr. The rest of the pets… well, they haven't been found yet."

"I'm not stupid, Rythie. I know they're dead. They got blown up, I'm surprised the dogs survived."

"Honestly, I'm surprised we survived. That you survived again. You're stronger than you sometimes seem." She glared at him.

"Of course I am, Rythie!" Her tone wasn't as exasperated as her words were. "I'm pro-as-heck!"

"How could I forget." He muttered. Zoeya suddenly sprang to her feet and spun around to look at him.

"Rythie, we have to go see Ravs!" She cried. "He's probably so confused right now!" She grabbed his hands and Rythian let her pull him to his feet, since she was right.

"What? You haven't been without me?" He teased. "That's part of how I wound up there for the first time. Between you being gone and Lalna being an ass, I found the Crooked Caber!"

"I wasn't injured or dead. You weren't trying to save my life or convince a demigod to bring me back to life." She replied.

"Fair enough. By the way, I never thanked you. So, thanks." Zoeya smiled.

"You thought I was just going to leave you like that?"

"I've learned to be grateful for everything. Also, I was pretty sure I was dead the moment Lalna cut me. This is an improvement." Rythian, still allowing Zoeya to pull him along, stepped through the door. The wind was gusting, sending the ends of his scarf flying and his coat flapping in its flurry. Zoeya's hair had fluttered into her face, which didn't really affect her, as she was walking backwards while 'dragging' him.

"Careful, Zo." He muttered, and she blew the red hair out of her face, only for it to be blown back by the wind. "Here, I'll lead. My hair's not long enough to get in my face." They switched places, only Rythian actually watched where he was going. The walk to CaberTown was farther than normal, seeing as they had moved their base again. They were actually closer to Blackrock Crater now than CaberTown.

The Mage was grateful for his leather boots, because the ground was soaked, and rain spat down in the wind, leaving dark spots on his white and purple coat. Zoeya shivered.

"You okay?" He asked, wondering why she insisted on wearing tank tops and shorts all the time. "Here." He shrugged off his coat and handed it to her.

"T-thank you." She muttered, pulling it over her shoulders. "It wasn't this cold in the hut." Rythian nodded, now cursing himself about wearing tank tops.

He was a bit of hypocrite, apparently. He sighed, wishing they hadn't gone so far from the town.

It took them a long time to walk to the town, and by that time they both were drenched and shivering. _Good thing I've got nothing against water_, he thought to himself, _or that would have been painful.  
_  
Ravs was sitting in his house, drink in hand. Rythian could see him through the window. Zoeya knocked on the door.

"You two are alive!" He cried, letting them in.

"Barely. Thank Ridge for that, I guess." Rythian muttered, stepping in and letting the warmth envelope him. Zoeya was a bit ahead of him, already pulling off his sodden coat.

"Yeah, what the hell were you doing?" Ravs demanded, stepping out of the way.

"I don't know. I was dying, the sciency stuff was poison, maybe I was thinking straight, maybe I wasn't. Anyways, I'm here now." The dark haired man replied.

"Yeah, thanks to Zo." Ravs retorted.

"I am aware of that, and I'm very grateful." Rythian could feel rainwater running down his neck out of his hair. His shirt was about five times darker than normal and plastered to his chest.

"Alright, fine, doesn't matter. You guys are okay, that's the important part. No thanks to you though, Ryth." Ravs grabbed a few drinks and handed them out. "Anyways, you guys look cold."

"We're a bit farther away than normal." Zoeya supplied. "And it's raining."

"Well, if it doesn't ease off, you guys can stay here. Clearly you're not dressed to be walking around in this weather. Anyways, hang Ryth's coat on the hook there to dry, and I don't know how you're going to dry off. Got any magic spells, Rythian?"

"Sadly, no."

"Well then, I guess you guys can just sit down. I've got a fire going, you'll dry off soon." Ravs told them.

Rythian pulled out his boots, no small task as they were plastered to his legs.

"What time is it?" Rythian asked.

"Three o'clock. Why? I know it's dark and all…" Ravs smirked. "What were you two doing?"

"Why do you always get that look on your face when you ask questions like that? We were sleeping! Zoeya hadn't slept in who knows how long, and I was tired, between looking after Sparkles* and trying to help Lalna." The Mage heard exasperation in his voice. Ravs sighed and gestured for the pair to sit down.

Rythian took a seat, Zoeya next to him, pressed into his wet side. She was shivering, again. The man took a sip of his drink, actually wincing at the strength.

"You make this even stronger?" He asked.

"A little. You're not used to it anymore, you haven't come around recently." Ravs accused.

"Sorry."

"It's fine. You guys want some blankets or something?" Zoeya nodded, and Rythian followed Ravs to go grab some.

"Right there." The bartender pointed to a closet, which when Rythian opened it, he saw a bunch of blankets amongst other things. He grabbed a few and returned to the shivering girl. She bundled herself into one of them, and the Mage did the same.

"Thanks."

"No problem. Figured Zoeya's lips shouldn't be blue. I can't tell if yours are, but if that mask is as wet as the rest of your clothes, you're gonna have some serious issues."

"Trust me, I know." The wet cloth was sticking to his mouth, which was a little annoying. However, there was no way he was taking it off.

"So what the hell has been going on?" Ravs began, "I've been hiding here and have really just been seeing Sips and Sjin being idiots, and people dying and arguing."

"Alright, long story really short: Lalna blew up the stronghold and attacked us, then I went after him, acquired this," he tilted his head back, exposing the scar, "a bunch of people panicked, I had Teep shoot me… and, Zo, take over, I was dead."

"I went to Ridge, he made me force Tee tell me what really happened, Ridge OPed Rythian, he came back to life-"

Rythian took over again. "The demigod gave me a bunch of screwed up memories, then Sparkles* fell in a really big hole, for some reason Martyn brought him back to our house, Lalna and Kim left, I joined them at Panda Labs, Lalna and Ridge had a battle, they both died, and after getting some sleep, we came here." He took a deep breath. "And that's all."

"Screwed up memories?" Ravs repeated.

"Let's just say, things I would never do in my right mind." He put his arm around Zoeya's shoulders. His words had been more for her than for Ravs. "But they're without a doubt my memories. Unfortunately."

"I know that, Rythie." Zoeya whispered. "I'm not that foolish to believe you would hurt me in on purpose."

"Yikes. You guys have had an adventure. Not sure if I'm glad or sad I stayed here." Rave joked.

"I'd have missed it if I could." Rythian answered. "Scissors are nasty." Ravs laughed.

"I can imagine!" He remarked. "Why'd Lalna come after you?"

"Cuz I'm not what I seem." Zoeya smirked when he responded.

"Rythie, why are all your answers like that?"

"Why shouldn't they be? It gets me out of actually answering!" The Mage chuckled.

"Wow. And what did he do to piss you off enough to immediately retaliate?" Ravs pressed.

"To get my attention, he almost killed Zo." A small amount of anger still tainted Ryth's voice when he said that.

Ravs gaped at him. "One, that's just rude. Two, you're so blind. So blind."

Rythian glared at his pubmaster friend, though he knew Ravs was right about Zoeya, just not him being blind to it. Let them believe I'm blind. Better than knowing I know, but can't tell her. That was the worst part.

Oh well. Everyone seemed to believe this was the first time in love, so he was clueless, and let them.

"What do you mean by that?" He demanded half-heartedly. Ravs could probably tell, but just gave him typical response.

"Nothing, Ryth." He smiled. "Absolutely nothing. Stop being so defensive!"

"Sorry." But the Mage was smiling a little as he said that.

Ravs sighed. "So how's Sparkles*?"

Rythian was mildly surprised by the change of subject, but he did reply. "He's better than he was. Martyn, Toby and I moved him to InTheLittleCorp. last night."

"That's good." Ravs told him. "So you just came over here to visit?"

"Yeah, pretty much!" Zoeya agreed, taking another sip of her drink. She clearly had some of the Zero, and Rythian felt momentarily guilty for tricking his vegetarian apprentice into drinking something made of squids.

Oh well. What she didn't know wouldn't kill her, in this case at least.

"Well, that's nice. Other than all this craziness, what have you been doing?" Zoeya smiled.

"Not much. Rythie had done a bunch of Thaumcraft, and I had my lab all set up again, finally." Rythian's mind flashed back to her old lab.

"Was I still an extreme threat?"

"Nope! You were only a threat cuz you were mad at me!" Zoeya answered. "And I hadn't hidden your monitor this time. I promise."

"I'm confused." Ravs muttered.

"I hid Rythie's monitor in the old science lab back in Blackrock Castle so that he wouldn't find it, and he was listed as a higher threat than Sips, Sjin and Lalna." Zoeya said quickly.

"Zo, that's harsh!" Ravs scolded, though he seemed to be joking.

"The computer sets its own threat levels… depending on the level of fear I have for the person." The last part was a whisper, though Rythian could understand why she'd been scared.

Zoeya yawned and rested her head against the technomancer's shoulder and started snoring softly.

"Wow. Explain to me again what you two were doing that made her so tired?" The bar man snickered and grinned mischievously.

"I told you already and I really don't want to explain all the events over again!" Rythian whined, drinking more of the Zero.

"Well in that case, I'm going to go find more squids. And hopefully no more Nilesys with chickens." Rythian replayed the 'chick-cident' as Zoeya called it in his mind.

"Have you had anymore incidents like that since we left?" He asked the mayor of Cabertown.

"Not yet. But now that you guys are here, who knows?" Ravs shrugged. The Mage was about to ask the mayor another question but a cry for help was seen on everybody's chip which was implanted in their brain.

"Nanosounds." Ravs breathe as he read the message.

"Come on, let's go!" Rythian lay the mushroom girl on both chairs and the two men rushed to Panda Labs.  
**  
****NILESY**

The witch and the nature spirit worked tiredly throughout the night, right through all the chatter that was going on about Kim, Lalna and Ridgedog.

Never in their whole lives did they think that they would ACTUALLY miss Lividcoffee the scientist. Lalna, the man who's first trick for Nanosounds was to get her to put the last wither skull on the soul sand cross. Duncan, who had around 8 different clones of himself.

This world was as dangerous as the people living in it themselves.

"And…there!" Martyn exclaimed, startling the poolboy out of his thoughts.

"I got the roses to FINALLY boil and the spanish moss to curl up in 5 segments and-" the Sapling Prince rambled before Nilesy put a firm hand on his shoulder.

"What I did was I told a certain Inthelittlewood to go get some sleep and I can handle this by myself." Nilesy's melodious voice ascended into the air. Martyn looked at him confusedly until he finally understood what he was saying.

"Are you sure?" He asked, yawning for the first time that night.

"Absolutely." Nilesy confirmed, nudging him to the trees nearby.

He watched as the King of the Saplings scrambled up the closest tree to the first branch. The man closed his eyes and was snoring almost instantly.

Nilesy laughed softly to himself and conjured a rope to keep his friend in the tree.

"Now then Sparkles*. Let's make you sparkle." He muttered, almost stepping on the dozing Toby who had fallen asleep right in the middle of the floor.

"Why do I even bother?" Nilesy muttered and picked the teen off the stone floor and brought him to his bed where he dropped him on it.

"Now then. Time to use some magic." Nilesy said, careful not to wake up the sleeping teenager as he left the room.

He took the mixture that they had made before and added in the roses, spanish moss and rice into the green pulp.

When he was finished, he brought it to the still unconscious singer.

"Open up." The witch propped open his mouth so he could eat the not-tasty-looking concoction that he and Martyn made.

First he made sure that he could swallow without choking by propping his head up slightly. He dipped his fingers in the green and dropped the glob in the ginger's mouth.

He only had to wait 20 seconds before Sparkles* woke up, sputtering and coughing.

"Goody. You're still alive." Nilesy said as the man sat up to get rid of the stuff in his lungs.

"Ow ow ow. OOOOOWWW." He moaned as he stayed sitting.

"Do you feel like your bones are broken into smithereens or that your muscles are sore?" Nilesy demanded calmly; Martyn said that this would happen when he woke.

"More like my bones are sore." Sparkles* replied, lying down on the bed once more. He sniffed the air and wrinkled his nose.

"So this is what a dying man smells like?" He asked the poolboy, closing his eyes.

"Well you're not dying anymore Sparky." Nilesy laughed the singers attempt to throw his pillow at him.

"So what did I miss while I was dying?" He certainty had many questions for the witch.

"Nothing much. We tried to heal you, prayed that you were an actual human, Lalna and Ridgedog got into a fight with Nano and both men ended up dying. Other than that, everything was the same." Nilesy replied, watching the band member carefully to see how he would take the news.

"What? Duncan and Ridgedog are dead?" Sparkles* shouted, looking at the poolboy incredulously.

"It's the truth: they're dead. Check your chip if you need proof." He repeated.

As he waited for the red-head to check his chip the witch looked longingly out the window and at his floating castle/air balloon home. He missed his own, proper bed and watching his witch buddy deal with bees; he hadn't done that since he left to let Xephos and her to be together. Alone.

"You're allowed to leave if you want to." He started, flipping his head to see the member of Area 11 leaning head against his white pillow and his eyes were closed. Apparently he had seen the dark-haired man stare outside.

"Are you sure?" Nilesy asked hesitantly.

"Absolutely." Sparkles* replied.

"Okay…Martyn is in a tree outside and Toby is in his room. Kaeyi is with Minty if you need any of them." The witch said then walked out of Martyn's room and to the front door.

It took longer than he expected(and wanted)but finally he made it to his own bed.

He was extremely tired and didn't really care that the sun said it was around 4:00 in the afternoon.

The moment his head hit the pillow a message popped up for everyone to see.

{Nanosounds} Help! Help me, the mother's attacking- No…no! Stop it! Mother, stop it! Get away! No! No please get out of my head! AAAAAHHHHH!

_The Mother is here for Nano…and no one's there to save her… *Evil laugh*_

_Featherflower has spoken the truth. What I did to Ryth was entirely MY fault. And I don't regret any of it because look at where we are now in the story! Okay…some of it. _

_It was my turn to not write a lot! Thank you for being patient with me!_

_Anyways, please review!  
~EndingFury_


	9. Chapter 9 So Now We're Flux'd Part 1

**Barry the mushroom! You're back to your former glory!  
~YOGSCAST Zoeya**

**Ugh I've been wasting all my time with fluff and two POVs. I'm crap. SO MANY HEADCANNONS IN HERE, COURTESY OF ME, Featherflower. So EndingFury doesn't regret letting me shatter Rythian's mind, according to her author's note. :P (yeah those parts have been me)  
~Featherflower**

**RYTHIAN**

Zoeya was sleeping when the Mage closed the door behind he and the bartender. She seemed okay, and hopefully she wouldn't even wake up before they'd sorted out the problem with the Mother.

Actually, Rythian realized, that wasn't likely. At all. Sorting out any problems with the Mother would likely take ages.

The Mage threw his coat over his shoulders, running after Ravs.

"What's going on?" He demanded, glaring at Rythian. "Who's the Mother?"

"She's associated with the flux. And she's not the kind of person you want to have attacking you." Rythian spoke with his hands, waving them in the air as they drew farther away from Cabertown.

"How the hell do you know that?" Ravs did not sound eager to help, but followed him anyways.

Still, Rythian tossed him a flying ring; the bartender catching it and reluctantly engaging it.

"I've had an… experience… with the flux." Rythian replied in a cautious manner, worried about saying too much. Ravs wasn't exactly incapable of making a few educated guesses.

"What the hell is the flux?" Ravs asked as they rose into the cool morning desert air.

"It's the purple goo that basically covers your entire body, slowly but surely." He explained. "It's caused by vis."

"And again, what is vis?" The bartender asked, seeming more confused than ever, them flying over cactus and creepers.

Rythian sighed. "Vis is part of thaumonomicon- holy shit I managed to say that right- anyways, part of Thaumini- what I just said, which is a type of magic." His face flushed a bit. Why did he always have trouble pronouncing thaumonomicon? He could always see the word in his head, but it just escaped his tongue. Like hydroangea.

He had other problems to deal with at this point anyways besides pronunciation of long words. The freaking Mother was back. A small part of Rythian was thinking that at least it wasn't him this time, but he squashed it. It was a problem in general that the Mother was around. And it wasn't like she'd waste any time getting revenge for him always thwarting her.

"Ryth, you know where Kim is, right?" The Mage turned his head when Ravs asked a question, startling him out of his thoughts.

"Yes, of course I do." He snapped, realizing just how far they had to go to get to the labs.

He thought about his options for a moment. "Ravs… can you promise not to question what I do next? Travelling like this is quite slow."

"Rythian, I gave up questioning you long ago." The man snorted, glancing at the Mage.

"Good. I apologize for any nausea." The endermage reached over and grabbed Ravs' hand, and before his friend could protest, had teleported out of the air and to the solid ground in front of Panda Labs.

He didn't really notice the supposedly sickening feeling. He was sort of immune, at this point. His friend however, was not, and Rythian had to do his best to ignore Ravs' groaning while he fought for control. And to his surprise, the man in the kilt was still groaning when he was able to focus again. "Come on, Ravs." He muttered, feeling a little sorry for the bartender. Rythian had to give to man credit though.

Ravs really didn't bother questioning how the mage had just pulled that off.

"Sorry! I did not expect that!" Ravs gasped, struggling to his feet. "I take it you've gotten used to that?"

"I'm naturally tolerant." Rythian said, a little more sharply than he had meant to. "Sorry. Doing that sometimes makes me irritable."

"It's fine. Let's go find Kim." He said, standing up and walking to the front door.

"What kind of a house is this?!" He exclaimed when he reached the door, almost stepping on the pressure plates. "It has no doorbell!" He turned to Rythian. "All proper houses have doorbells!"

"Mine didn't." The Mage pointed out.

"Well you get an excuse; you're the most mysterious here."

That's when he noticed the purple.

"Ravs I don't think-" the enchanter started to warn as be grabbed the man's arm, but he was too late.

The man had taken another step, stepping on the almost-invisible plates and opened the doors.

A violet tendril had snaked around Ravs' right ankle, yanking him in the building when he opened the door. A shout of surprise flew in behind the man.

[That's it! We're going! I'm not dying now! Not like this!] the voice in his head exclaimed, pulling them out of the way of the violet tendrils that were now thrashing through the stone brick floor and into one of the tall trees near the labs.

Rythian was sort of surprised when he didn't feel any resistance from the other.

[What? I am allowed to say when I want to die, am I not?]

**ZOEYA**

The girl figured out something was wrong when she woke up cold. Surprisingly, Rythian typically had a lot of body heat, so she in turn was normally warm when she woke up. But Ravs' house was empty, aside from Zoeya herself. After the past few days, it was not exactly something she was ready for. Those two could have at least woken her to tell her they were leaving! Instinctively, she checked the chat. Kim had been super freaked out about someone called the Mother, as well as Nilesy, but no one else…

{Zoeya} Rythian? Where are you?

He didn't respond for a while.

{Rythian} I'm at Panda Labs, stay where you are.  
{Zoeya} No! You don't have to protect me! I'm coming to you.  
{Rythian} Zoeya… please. Stay where you are.

She wanted to listen; even in the messaging he seemed pleading.

{Zoeya} I'll be there soon, I want to help!  
{Sips_} Dun Dun Duh! Trouble in paradise!  
{Rythian} One, thank you Sips, really needed that right now. Second… you're not going to listen, so I may as well stop arguing with you.  
{Sips_} Hey, always glad to help.  
{Xephos} I don't think that's what he meant.

Zoeya let the two have their chat as she walked outside into a gentle rain, before realizing how far away she was from the labs. "Oh, butts." She cursed; running off towards the Rythian met her halfway, to her surprise. He seemed like he'd been waiting for some time already.

"Rythie? I thought you were at the labs!" She said, confused. How had he gotten there?

"Being part monster has its benefits," He muttered, "but that's not important right now. Please, just hear me out. The Mother is dangerous and I don't want you getting hurt. I couldn't stand it if something- something happened to you." His eyes had a pleading look to them. He was literally begging her not to go with him for once.

"But surely if she's dangerous to me, she's dangerous to you!" Zoeya protested.

"That's not important right now." He said again, walking forward until they were standing face to face, noses nearly touching. "I'll be fine, as long as I know you're safe." It was a sweet thing to say, though Zoeya didn't quite understand why the mage had said it.

"What do you mean? You're still in danger!" She cried again, throwing her hands on her hips.

He sighed. "Dammit, Zoeya, can't you see it? I'll be fine as long as you're safe because I'm in love with you, and I want you to be safe." He muttered the last phrase, as if he was suddenly shy, lifting his one hand to rub the back of his neck and looking down at the grass.

"Rythie?" She squeaked, looking at him. His face was slowly turning red, and he glanced at the technomage.

"Sorry. I- I don't- I didn't- I didn't mean to-" He stammered, not meeting her blue gaze.

"Didn't mean to what? Rythian, did it ever even occur to you that I might feel the same way?" The girl asked; her voice unnaturally soft. She pulled him into a tight hug. "You seem to think no one would feel that way about you, but I do."

Rythian sighed, eventually returning her embrace. "That's because I'm a monster!" He growled softly, breathing in the scent of her short, red hair. He missed that smell.

Zoeya pulled back to look him in the eyes.  
"You can only be a monster if you let them think that that's what you are. And that's not what you are according to me. Now let's go help Kim!" She said, and the look in her eyes said she wasn't going to be argued with.

"Zoeya…" he muttered, voice soft and pleading. "Go to Inthelittlecorp, or Owl Island, or Yoglabs or somewhere safe!"

"Not gonna happen. And Yoglabs isn't exactly safe Rythian." Zoeya told him, grabbing the mage's hand and dragging him off.

"Zoeya, listen. If something goes wrong… promise you'll leave. Please." He stumbled after her, still sort of trying to hold her back.

"Not if you're in danger. Stop asking me not to take risks! You never did before!" She protested, still charging towards the area she guessed the big, red building was.

"Yes I did, you just never listened." He muttered sadly. "And every time that happened, you got hurt."

"Oh, relax Rythie. How bad can this Mother be?" Zoeya said lightly, turning around and walking backwards to smile at the boy.

"Bad." He said, his tone dark and foreboding. "She's worse than the Queen of the End."

Zoeya stopped, and frowned. "Wait, why does the Enderbabe hate you if you're-"

"I'm worse than a human, according to her. I disgust her, being a combination of her precious followers and the humans she detests." Rythian explained curtly. He obviously didn't really want to talk about it.

"Also, isn't she your queen too?" He sighed as she asked another half-personal question.

"Not necessarily. Technically, yes, but she tries to execute me for the treason of being born constantly, so I don't know if it counts that way. I'm not exactly a loyal follower, needless to say." He muttered. "Anyways, back on the subject of the Mother. If you insist on coming, do not let her flux you. I don't know what state Kim's gonna be in when we get there."

"She can flux people? Kim?" Zoeya asked. It didn't help that she didn't really understand how the flux worked; it was a magic thing. She did science…most of the time.

"Maybe. Now, come on. Ravs and probably Nilesy will be waiting for us. And stay safe, for Notch's sake." He really was being worried for her.

"Rythie, I get it." Zoeya told him, turning around and continued to walk towards Panda Labs, or where she thought it was. Her map didn't help at all; she had never been there herself.

Rythian was silent for a long while, and he startled her when he spoke again. "Zoeya… "

"Don't argue with me again!" She said, starting to get slightly annoyed with him. This time she didn't turn around.

"I'm not. I'm gonna do something strange, okay? Don't distract me." He apprentice wondered what he was going to do, until she felt his hand and then a strange, sickening, twisting feeling pass over her, and she simply wasn't standing where she had been two seconds ago. Instead, Zoeya could see Panda Labs standing a couple of meters away from her.

"Oh boy." She coughed and turned away from Rythian, bringing up the little food that she had ate before she fell asleep.

When she cleaned herself up a bit and turned around, she found Rythian on his knees, eyes closed, two fingers pressed to each of his temples. She swore she heard him mutter a few curses underneath his breath; something he didn't do very often.

"Alright, cool. Let's go find Ravs and Nilesy." The enchanter said suddenly, standing up and lacing his fingers through hers.

"Are you alright, Rythie?" Zoeya asked, concerned. She had no idea how he had just done that, but he had seemingly teleported…

He didn't answer immediately. "No? Yes? I don't know." The mage sighed. "Sometimes it's hard to tell."

Zoeya had no idea what to say to that. Instead, she gave him a hug, trying to lend him some comfort.

"I'm okay for now, Zoeya. I'll live. I always have. Now, we really need to go." He always seemed to brush his problems away, like they were nothing, but his apprentice got the feeling he was faking it.

She let go of him and they finally got to the labs. "Be-"

"I know, Rythie!" Zoeya brushed off his sixth or seventh or whatever number warning. She looked up at the tall, red building.

[Kim was right; it does kinda look like a monster's face.] Zoeya thought, referring back to the time when she had bumped into the girl in the Nether.

That was before any of this had started.

"Don't step any closer Zoeya. Ravs did and flux tendrils came shooting through the air." Rythian warned the girl. She decided to heed his warning and followed him to the back of the building; to a cave.

Rythian walked up to one of many hidden doors of Panda Labs and stepped inside. "Kim? Ravs? Nilesy?"

No one answered.

Zoeya stepped in cautiously after the mage. A flash of glowing purple made her shriek. "Duck!"

Rythian was clearly ready for it, as he simply crossed his arms in front of him and a lighter, more magenta coloured glow covered his arms and protected the two of them.

Where the violet rope had come from stood a girl who looked like Kim, but had a dark, plum coloured hue surrounding her. Her eyes glowed periwinkle, almost as bright as Rythian's.

"Kim." He said softly, staring at the thing that had fired at him. "Where are Nilesy and Ravs?"

"Don't worry… you'll be joining them soon." The thing that looked like Kim replied, standing to their left. Zoeya glared at her.

This was Kim? The Kim that stayed with Duncan even when he locked her in the tower? The Kim that had a friendly rivalry with Hat Films? The Kim that loved witchery and didn't really understand science? No. This was not that Kim. This was the Mother, and Zoeya knew that she wouldn't hesitate to kill.

"What did you do to them?" The mushroom girl demanded, flicking on the power for the weapon attachments on her robotic arm.

She remembered her oath never to fight again, but she didn't know what would happen these next few minutes.

"Nothing I won't do to you, in time." The fluxed girl responded, eyeing her metal arm. "Didn't you swear on one of your stupid mushrooms that you were never going to fight again?"

Zoeya stiffened. She opened her mouth to retaliate, but Rythian caught her first.

[Don't say anything. She wants to make you angry, to push you to your limits…to break you.]

Zoeya shut her mouth slowly, still glaring at the girl. Kim smirked; she must have known what happened.

"Did you flux them, Mother?" Mother was more of a name than anything, the way Rythian said the title.

"That would be telling, Rythian Enderborn." Kim- Mother- whatever, sneered at him, turning her attention to the boy.

"Ooh, last names. I'm scared, Mother." The mage scorned, though he was clearly more scared than he was letting on.

"Rythie? What's going on? Do you know the Mother?" Rythian gave a curt nod.

"Yes, he does. He knows me quite well." The Mother replied, letting out a small, fake smile. "Isn't that right, Rythian."

Rythian snarled, more purple light flaring out from his eyes. The mage almost lunged at the fluxy creature, but Zoeya held him back.

"Don't, Rythie. Not yet." She muttered. Rythian turned to look at her for a moment, two conflicting forces shattering his eyes, which glowed almost blindingly. Purple was slowly seeming like less of a safe colour, being that it was tied to the flux and Rythian's End magic. At least, that's what she assumed his magic was.

Rythian heaved a sigh, face reverting back to the kinder, more control expression Zoeya was used to, and turned to face the Mother again. "That doesn't matter, really. It only means I've won once, and can do it again."

"So you think." The Mother laughed, a soft, dreamy laugh, quiet and pleasant. Zoeya stepped up to stand next to Rythian, and leaned over to whisper in his ear.

"How can we stop her when Nilesy and Ravs barely lasted ten minutes?" Zoeya's voice sounded scared, even to herself.

"I don't know, but we have to try. I've beaten her before; I just have to beat her again!" Rythian's voice sounded brittle, like glass at its breaking point.

Zoeya rolled her eyes, staring at the small amount of glowing purple she could see of Kim, who was standing at their right.

Wait…wasn't she to left?

Zoeya shook her head mentally and replied to Rythian.  
"Why am I surprised; you've beaten ninety percent of everything!"

"Problem is… I don't know if I can do it again." The magenta glow returned to his fingers and hands. "But if I don't-"

"If you don't, I will." Zoeya promised. That didn't seem to reassure Rythian. She remembered that the mage didn't want her involved. "Come on, Rythie, time to get going." She paused.

"Wait. We came here to help Kim. Can we-"

I don't know." Rythian said sadly. "I don't know. But I'll try."

During their talk, the Flux Mother had gathered all her fluxiness together and made her move, firing more of her flux magic at Rythian, who knocked it aside and countered with his own. Zoeya figured out her assumption had been right when the glow broke into pinkish-purple particles. End magic.

After the first two warning shots, all hell broke loose. Zoeya lost track of the magic, violet and magenta the only things she could see but for two pairs of glowing eyes. She would have helped, but she had no idea what to aim at, or _who_.

Until a flash of dark violet flew directly at her chest, landing with the pain of a thousand fiery needles and rocketing her backwards, into a wall. She shrieked in her agony, and Rythian turned around to look at her, seemingly panicked.

"Zoeya!" Rythian cried, though his momentary distraction was not enough to get him hit by the painful flux magic. "Oh gods no, Zoeya."

He rounded on the flux beast wearing the skin of a young witch, a low growl emitting from his throat. But that was the last Zoeya heard, because the fiery pain was spreading up her body, and she blacked out as Rythian let out an anguished cry and fell beside her.

**RYTHIAN**

The moment he regained consciousness, he checked his hands, taking off the wrappings in the process. Rythian knew that would be the first place for the flux to appear. He groaned, seeing the telltale purple marks, almost like burns, embedded into his skin.

He could sense Zoeya behind him, stirring in her slumber. They would want to get rid of this problem as soon as possible…if that was possible.

[We should have gotten her. You never seem to listen to me in the middle of a death fight.] The overly annoying voice said, cutting off his thoughts.

[What? Me trying to do my best wasn't good enough for you?] He snapped back at it.

[No…you weren't trying your hardest. That's what happens when love gets in the way. And yes, that wasn't enough.]

[Well if you were in control, you would have killed her, and there's no one who can revive her.]

[Well thats not my fault, is it?] It sneered.

[And it's not mine either.] The Mage snapped back at it and turned his attention to his companions.

"Zoeya?" He rasped, sitting up and glancing around. "Ravs? Nilesy?"

Zoeya, whom had now awoken, looked at him and threw her arms around his neck. "You're alright! We're both alright!" She cried, pulling away rather quickly.

"Not quite. We've been locked up by the Mother, and… well… if I'm right, look at your hand." The flux wouldn't affect metal, so only her left hand would show signs of the sticky, purple goo.

"You're not going to like my report." Zoeya declared, staring at the pale purple, curvy streaks running up her good arm.

"So those two will be flux'd as well." Rythian said, faking calm, glancing at Ravs and Nilesy, still unconscious on the floor on the other side of the room.

"Rythian… what does that mean?" Zoeya asked, sounding suddenly scared as she stared at the purple lines.

"It means we'll be doing a lot of thaumonomicon, if we get out of here-" his voice broke. "Alive. Which I likely won't."

"Why not?"

"Because I've already stopped her once." He pulled at the pieces of cloth that were now sitting in his lap. "I didn't know how to stop it, so I burned it out of my skin, which did work, to an extent. It was a bit more complicated than that." He could see the burn scars, almost hidden under the flux. "That's why it looks like the flux is burned into my skin. She's mocking me and my terrible cure."

"Is that what's under your mask, too?" Zoeya asked, and she had the right to be curious.

"Among other things, yes, there are burn scars." Rythian replied, eyes suddenly focused on the marks on his hands.

Suddenly, Zoeya reverted back to her previous subject. "You have to get out alive! Either we both get out, or we go down trying." She insisted.

Rythian let out a pained sigh, looking back up at her. "Don't extend the Mother's wrath onto yourself, as well."

"No, no! This is a two way street! You're not taking all the risks!" Zoeya told him, tone matter-of-fact. "I'm going to help you, Rythie. We're going to get out of this alive."

"Easier said than done." Rythian muttered. "She'd rather kill me than let me get away scot-free, because she knows if I have to, I'll just burn it out again."

"That's right, my host, but can you do the same to Zoeya?" The Mother had walked in. Rythian hadn't even noticed the door until the Mother opened it. "Can you force yourself to burn Zoeya as you burned yourself? After her experience with burns and nukes… that would hardly be fair."

"Why don't you ask me the question of am I okay with that?" Zoeya spoke up and stood up, though Rythian really wished she wouldn't. "It's really up to me, in the end."

"But Rythian has to do it, foolish girl. Normal fire won't do the trick, Rythian has to use magical fire… and he's the only one capable of conjuring it." The flux Mother. As if to prove the thing's point, Rythian filled his palm with a small purple fire. He stared at it in silence, remembering the time he'd pressed the bright flames to his skin, watching the flesh bubble and pucker under the purple fire, as he chewed his lip in a valiant yet ineffective attempt to not scream in pain. He'd swore he'd never repeat that, because he wasn't sure he could, despite having killed most of the pain receptive nerves in his hands during that 'cure.' He frowned, returning to the present and glaring at the Mother. "I wonder what would happen if I tried to burn the flux off of you, Mother…" he mused, voice threatening.

Zoeya gasped. "Rythian, that's Kim!"

Rythian shook his head. "The Kim that you knew is dead. Once the Mother takes over your body, you're tossed into a obsidian-like cage in the corner of your own mind to sit there until you rot to your death."

The Mother laughed. "Now excuse me," She raised her left hand and Nilesy floated up with it. "I have to go practice my torture skills." She grinned maniacally and left, the door sealing itself behind her.

The Mage realized that the door looked exactly like the wall. It didn't help that he could see that the door was enchanted to move around on the wall so you never knew where it was at the time.

"Great. Now the Mother has Nilesy, we can't get out, Ravs is still unconscious and there is no one who can bring us back to life." Zoeya groaned and rested her head against the cracked stone brick wall, closing her eyes. Rythian suddenly realized that she made a mistake.

"There's one thing about what you said is wrong." Rythian looked up at the apprentice's face. "Have you heard about the 'back-up?'" Zoeya shook her head, slightly confused.

The Mage told her the story. "Well, when Ridgedog was first given the ability of bringing people back to life, everyone kind of hated him at the moment. So he gathered everybody together and basically said that since everybody wanted to kill him, he would have a back-up death person so IF he died, somebody else could bring him and everyone else back. Ridgedog said who the back-up was and gave him the power. Then he wiped everybody's brains, wanting no one to remember that he also had that ability. He doesn't remember that he has that ability. Nobody remembers. And then you, Nano and Toby came along a while after that, and you know the rest."

"But you remember." Zoeya looked at him bizarrely.

"Having another 'person' in my head has its benefits." Rythian smirked. "It was able to be a shield for my brain when Ridgedog cast the memory spell."

"So you gonna tell me who this 'back-up' is someday soon?" The now-fluxed red-head asked.

"Not right now. We need to wake up Ravs first." Rythian stood up from the cold, stone floor and stumbled to the unconscious kilted-man.

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Zoeya followed him to the other side of the room.

"Like this." The Mage said, and started to rub his hands together, the same purple, sparking fire as before flowing freely from his fingers. When he opened his hands, the fire bended and twisted to his will; a band of ultra violet formed between his palms.

That's when they heard the first scream.

"Oh crap." Rythian cursed and got a good look at Ravs before he touched him.

"Wait… he's not flux'd?!" Rythian cried, extremely bewildered.

"Must be all the alcohol that he inhales." Zoeya pointed out.

"Whatever it is, it might just save all of us." The enchanter said, closing his palms and starting the process all over again, except this time the magic was lilac coloured.

"What is that going to do?" Zoeya pondered, leaning over to see what he was going to do next.

"It's gonna wake him up and hopefully do nothing else." Rythian muttered and thrust his palms onto Ravs' chest. The mayor shook violently, squeezing his eyes shut and groaning in his sleep.

And then he gasped, forcing his brown eyes open.

"Wha, Rythian, what's going-" The man tried to talk, but Rythian shushed him.

"Ravs, I need you to listen very carefully at what I'm about to tell you." The man looked warily at the girl, who just shrugged.

"Okay," the bartender took a breath, "what do I need to do?"  
_  
Cliffhangers! Duh duh duhhhhhh! What will happen next? Will Nilesy survive? Find out next time!_

_I don't know what happened last time with the coding, but I'll do my best to not let that get away again._

_Sorry about the long wait. I don't have any excuses about that. Please keep on being patient with me!  
~EndingFury_


	10. Chapter 10 So Now We're Flux'd Part 2

**Or I'll break your kneecaps off with a hammer!  
~YOGSCAST Kim**

**Hi guys! I had stuff to say, but now I don't! Oh, by the way, I'm CloseToSomethingReal now, not Featherflower. But I tend to sign off as Something.**

**I remember now! I somehow made it through my probation! EndingFury (on my command) banned me from two POVs cuz they're the only ones I've used since I killed Lalna.  
-Something/Featherflower**

**SJIN**  
He had been feeling different ever since the announcements for Ridgedog's and Lalna's deaths. He felt…sick, almost like he should be doing something really important. When he told his best friends though, they just brushed it off.

"Everybody's shocked that they're dead Sjin," Sips had told him, "Maybe you should go lie down, you're burning up," The business man remarked as he felt the farmer's forehead.

"No, it's not that type of sick-" Sjin tried to protest, but Sips ignored him, picking him up bridal-style and carried him into the new building that the duo had built. He walked through the beige halls (Sips complained that when they were white it looked like they lived in a hospital) and set him down on the bed in Sjin's room.

"I'll come to check up on you in a bit, okay?" Sips said, turning to walk outside again, leaving the farmer to slowly fall asleep.

The next short nap that he would take would change his life forever.

It started off with a dream. A simple one too; everyone in the area sat around a mahogany table with mahogany chairs. Sips sat to his right, Turps sat to his left. Duncan and Rythian and himself sat far apart; this was when they couldn't honestly be in the same room without blowing each other up. Zoeya, Nano and Toby were not present. Sjin could remember that they hadn't joined the group yet.

"Thank you for coming," Ridgedog sat at the end of the table, folding his hands on the wood.

"What do you want, Ridge?" Trott asked and lazily threw his flippers on the table, leaning back in his chair.

"Yeah, we were just about to launch a test nuke and then you send a message saying that all of us have to show up here in the middle of nowhere! Explain this to us clueless people," Alsmiffy spoke up, crossing his green arms and glaring at the man.

"Well, uh-" Ridgedog started to say but Honeydew cut him off.

"And why did Notch decide that YOU should get the power to bring people back from the dead," The dwarf cried, shaking an angry fist at the newly crowned demigod.

More shouts of hate were thrown into the air, setting everyone on chaos mode. Sjin sat there, terrified that someone was going to do something stupid soon.

"EVERYONE SHUT UP," Xephos yelled, banging his left fist on the table therefore making everyone jump, "Ridgedog was chosen because though he can get a little crazy at times, he can at least take responsibility for the actions that take place. Sometimes. Also, he is a demigod, so it sort of makes sense." Xephos added when he got protesters opening their mouths to correct him.

"Thank you Xephos," Ridgedog said, nodding to the foreigner.

"Don't thank me," The alien snapped, "I'm just saying what's the truth," Ridge looked a bit stunned at this.

"Well…um… okay then," Ridge stuttered, unsure of what to say.

"I called all of you here because I wanted to share with you fellow…inhabitants of this planets an idea of mine."

"Since when do you get ideas?" Sips asked incredulously, staring at the demigod like he was a strange combination of plants and human.

"I haven't even shared the idea with you yet!" The man cried, throwing his hands in the air.

"Well then start talking!" Lomadia snapped, stroking the owl that was sitting on the table as if trying to calm herself down.

"Okay, okay! Since everyone kind of hates me at the moment and will probably always will," a lot of heads bobbed at that comment, "I decided that together we should pick a back-up person so that if I DO die for some reason, someone else can revive people."

"That makes sense," Nilesy admitted, ruffling the black fur of Lyndon who sat on the table in front of him.

"That said, it doesn't give you guys a reason to go kill me just because there's someone else who can save you," Ridgedog warned.

"I vote Ross," Alsmiffy jumped up and proclaimed, pointing to his black haired friend.

"Why me? I'll probably end up killing everyone and then forgetting that I can bring them back!" Ross protested.

"I don't know why you! I just picked someone and that's it," Smiffy shrugged and sat back down.

"And how is that going to help us, Smiffy?" Sjin teased the green, lanky man.

"I have no idea," The tallest one out of his group of three shrugged again.

"Well I vote Sjin," Rythian muttered to himself.

"What? Why me?" Sjin looked incredulously at the mage.

"Unfortunately, I have to agree with you on this, Rythian," Lalna sighed.

"LividCoffee and Rythian are agreeing on something? What are we going to find next, them snogging in a locked closet?" Trott exclaimed, pulling his feet off the table. Several snickers floated into the air.

Lalna ignored them and continued. "You have the personality to make sure that when somebody dies, you're going to revive them and you will do it every single time, though I hate to admit it," Some people looked ready to object, but were cut off by the spaceman.

"He has a point," Xephos admitted, glaring at the couple of people who had opened their mouths.

"Woah wait a sec! Shouldn't we make Xephos the 'back-up' person? He IS the leader here," Sjin waved his hand in the spaceman's general direction.

"No," the man shook his head, "I'm not from here, therefore I don't qualify for the job. And I'm just too complicated."

"And WAY too awesome," Honeydew reminded him.

The spaceman chuckled, "And that too. Everyone who thinks it should be Sjin, raise your hand." All hands, some more reluctantly than others, were raised into the air.

"Then Sjin it is," Ridgedog confirmed, standing up, walking to where the farmer sat and mumbled some weird things in a different language, waving his hands above the brunette's head.

"Sjin!" Minty cried beside him, sounding terrified.

"SJIN! WAKE UP!" She shouted in his ear when he looked at her confused, not listening to what everybody else was saying.

"What?" Sjin bolted up in his bed, his skin feeling like ice.

"We're being attacked!" The woman cried, pulling him out of the blue covers.

"What? By whom?" Sjin asked, slightly confused.

Minty turned to him with a look of horror splattered across her face.

"The Mother."

**SPARKLES***  
He woke up to a cry for help. Something about the Mother attacking Sjin, Sips and Minty. Also something about Nilesy being fluxed and acting as a puppet of some sorts? He was too woozy to completely understand about what was going on. When Martyn came running in the guest room, looking somewhat terrified, Sparkles* woke up a bit more and rechecked the last cries in the chat.

{Sjin} Somebody help!  
{Xephos} What's going on?! I can hear your screams from here!  
{MintyMinute} We're being attacked by Nilesy!  
{Xephos} What the heck?  
{MintyMinute} I don't know! His voice has changed and he's saying that he's the Mother!  
{Honeydew} We'll be right there!

Minty didn't answer.

{Honeydew} Minty? Sjin?  
{Honeydew} Sips? Minty? Sjin? Where are you guys?  
{Honeydew} Guys?  
{Rythian} Honest to goodness, Honeydew! If they're fighting the Mother, they don't have time to answer you!

Martyn chuckled, though he seemed to be lacking a lot of humour.

"Martyn? What's going on?" The ginger asked, wincing from the pain talking caused. He was far from fully healed.

Martyn shook his head, "I've got no idea," He admitted, "but it doesn't sound like Sjin, Sips and Minty are having much fun right now."

Sparkles* nodded, "That sounds about right," He agreed, "should we go help?"

The blond looked at him like he was from outer space, "Sparkles*, you just broke a lot of bones…we don't know how many. You're lucky to be alive. You can't go anywhere right now."

"Fine. But if you want to help, then go ahead. I'm not stopping you," Sparkles* offered.

Martyn looked torn. He clearly thought he needed to stay with the injured man, but wanted to help Sjin, Sips and Minty.

"Go, Martyn, Sparkles* urged, managing a grin. "I'll be fine, and I'll be here when you get back. Not like I'm going anywhere anyways!"

"Alright, Sparkles*. Take care," Martyn ran out the exit of InTheLittleCorp., wooden doors swinging back to click into place.

"What else would I do?" The ginger laughed to himself.

**KIM**  
When had she gotten here? What had happened? The last she remembered was Lalna dying, and she certainly hadn't been in this strange, black walled room full of weird torture devices, some covered in blood.

Her entire body ached, and there were strange markings and bruises all along her arms.

Instinctively, the girl checked the chat.

She didn't like what she saw.

{Sjin} Somebody help!  
{Xephos} What's going on?! I can hear your screams from here!  
{MintyMinute} We're being attacked by Nilesy!  
{Xephos} What the heck?  
{MintyMinute} I don't know! His voice has changed and he's saying that he's the Mother!  
{Honeydew} We'll be right there!  
{Honeydew} Minty? Sjin?  
{Honeydew} Sips? Minty? Sjin? Where are you guys?  
{Honeydew} Guys?  
{Rythian} Honest to goodness, Honeydew! If they're fighting the Mother, they don't have time to answer you!

The Mother could only use people who had been fluxed… what the hell was going on?

{NanoSounds} guys? What's going on?  
{Ravs} you should know quite well, Kim! You fricking caused all this shit!  
{Rythian} he doesn't mean that. Kim, there's been a problem with the Mother. And you.  
{NanoSounds} oh Notch. Where is everybody?  
{Zoeya} Ravs, Rythian and I are somewhere in Panda Labs. No clue about the others. We're locked up.  
{NanoSounds} I'm coming to find you guys, so you can explain properly.

And Nano ran out of the strange room, with a sinking feeling. Mother wasn't talking to her right now because she was too occupied with Nilesy, but she could still sense her smugness.

The fluxy witch ran through Panda Labs, trying to figure out where Mother could have locked away three people, including a very impulsive scientist and a fairly powerful mage.

Then it hit her. That strange room Lalna had built. The Mother had always had an interest in it. Kim ran off for the room in the far back.

The walls and door were enchanted, but since technically she was the one who had enchanted it, it was easy to find the door.

"Guys?" She gasped, running in, noticing just how much she was sweating. And she knew it was because of fear, but not irrational fear. "What's going on?"

Rythian glanced at her, formerly lilac eyes a dusky purple, like the flux that stained his skin, "Quite a bit, Kim. I promise, I tried to stop this. I didn't want you, or Mother, to have caused this. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine. I could have stopped this."

Nano knew it wasn't the mage's fault, but he'd take responsibility for it.

Ravs didn't seem as forgiving, and he didn't speak.

Zoeya didn't speak either, at first, but the now-fluxed girl ran up and gave Nano a hug, "It's alright, Kim. We'll figure it out!"

"What's going on with Nilesy? What happened? The last thing I vividly remember was Lalna dying!" Kim complained, returning Zoeya's embrace. She was more scared than she wanted to admit.

"Kim," Rythian began, "you should really sit down. You aren't going to like what we have to tell you." The mage looked serious.

"Rythian, it's got to do with the Mother, doesn't it? That why you two are fluxed, and Nilesy's going crazy, and everything's wrong!" Kim asked, panicked. What had happened? What didn't she remember?

All she remembered was Lalna. Lalna was dead. The grief was what she truly remembered. Lalna had died saving her from Ridgedog's wrath.

"Kim," Rythian repeated gently, "sit down and I'll explain what's going on," The mage himself was kneeling on the ground, Zoeya had moved to sit right next to him. Of course she had, they were as good as together at this point.

As good as she and Lalna had been. Kim sat down, numb.

"Kim… shortly after what happened to Lalna-" the fluxy girl cut him off at his euphemism.

"Stop, Rythian. Stop sugar-coating everything. Lalna's dead, I'm aware, you don't have to hide it from me," She snapped, tears burning her eyes. She hated that fact, but her mind couldn't take dulled facts and cushioned words.

Rythian sighed. He'd been there when Lalna had died, he knew what her reaction had been and was obviously reluctant to bring it up. "Fine. After Lalna was killed, you sent us all a message saying the Mother was attacking you. I convinced Ravs to come with me," the bartender grumbled at that, "and we headed over here. Nilesy came as well. I tried to leave Zoeya at Ravs' home-"

"But I'm really bad at listening!" Zoeya interjected, putting a touch of humour in Rythian's speech.

"That you are. Anyways, Ravs got caught by some sort of purple fluxy trap, and around that time Zoeya started messaging me, so I went to go get her, and we ended up here, fought with the Mother, ended up imprisoned in this room, and a while ago the Mother came to bug us and collect Nilesy to 'practice her torture skills.'"

"Why'd you have to drag me into this mess, Rythian?" Ravs demanded, looking a little irritable.

"Ravs, you didn't even end up fluxed from this, so you don't get to complain," Rythian snapped, "I dragged you into this because I needed help."

Nano needed a moment to process what the purple eyed man had told her, so she let them bicker.

"And then you abandoned me to go get your girlfriend, Rythian. You just admitted it." Ravs pointed out, "You needed my help, but sure as hell didn't offer it when I needed help."

"You know what? Zoeya and I are still the ones who got fluxed from this, so you can just calm down, Ravs. Yes, I went to go find Zoeya before coming to rescue you. And I'm not really sorry," Rythian replied, not denying anything that Ravs had just said, "I had no idea what I was going to find when I came inside, so I dealt with the thing I could figure out beforehand."

Ravs still looked mighty pissed off, but didn't complain again.

"So wait, I let the Mother get fully out of control?" Kim gasped, eyes wide. The tears that had been burning them were running in silence down her cheeks.

"It's not as simple as that, Kim, trust me. I know almost as well as you do," Rythian promised.

"Is she already talking to you?" The raven haired girl asked, feeling a flash of fear. They could not afford more problems with the Mother. Not with Nilesy and her available as pawns.

"No, but I've heard her before. Calm down, Kim. We're going to keep you with us, but we aren't staying here, I should add, and we'll watch for the Mother," Rythian promised, "Now, can you still find the door, Kim?"

Kim glanced at the walls. "Um… no. I can't."

"Shit," Ravs swore, "this was a great idea!"

"Ravs!" Rythian snapped, "Stop whining! We are all in the same damn situation right now! You're just making everyone feel worse! If you don't have anything helpful to say, shut your mouth."

_Well there you have it! Computer went a bit psycho and that's why this is out so late, but here it is!_

_~EndingFury _


	11. Chapter 11 The Rebellious Phase

**Well I wouldn't mind if you took the horns off.  
-LyingInBedmon/ Remember Comics (YouTube)**

**Yeah, that was a play on the fact that the flux thingy goes by Mother. Deal with it! XD**

**Also… my probation from two POVs is up, so maybe I'll have them in this chapter, but maybe not, because chapter 9 was solidly their POVs.  
-CloseToSomethingReal**

**MARTYN**

SipsCo was surprisingly far away from InTheLittleCorp, especially since the Sapling Prince wanted to get there fast.

And Martyn was sprinting, so it wasn't like he wasn't making an effort. His breaths were coming in gasps more than anything, and he hadn't even been running for long.

Of course, he was also still pretty tired from recently. The tide of problems wouldn't let up. Rythian, Sparkles*, and now this.

He could see the metal gate of the Cooperation, looming in the distance, growing closer and closer with every footstep. He could hear the shrieks and screams and cackles already.

Purple flashed everywhere, and even from twenty feet away, Martyn had to avoid them. Nilesy, or the Mother, or whoever it was, clearly wasn't concerned about their aim.

Finally reaching the door, Martyn burst into SipsCo and again had to avoid flashing coils of flux magic.

"Sjin? Minty? Sips?" Martyn called, racing past the flailing tendrils of magic.

"Martyn?" Xephos replied, panic clear in his voice. "Oh thank Notch you're here!"

"What is going on?" The sapling prince demanded, but didn't hear the answer from Xephos because Nilesy answered instead.

But it wasn't Nilesy. The voice was wrong. "Yes," they purred, voice low and menacing, "thank goodness you've come to join our game, Martyn InTheLittleWood," Nilesy's formerly dark green eyes glinted purple, with a murderous look in them.

This wasn't the Nilesy he knew. This was the Mother.

"Well, none of us are powerless, so this should be a good game to play!" Martyn replied, a hint of a snarl in his voice.

The nature magic that the Sapling Prince possessed still wasn't back up to its full power, but sending quick bursts of it through the floor of SipsCo to form roots to catch Nilesy's feet wasn't hard.

No. It wasn't Nilesy. It was the Mother. Martyn needed to get that in his head, or else he wasn't going to manage to fight the Mother.

While the sapling prince distracted the Mother, Xephos ran up behind them, attempting to stab them through with a sword.

"Valiant effort, spaceman," the Mother purred, completely ignoring Martyn's next attack and turning to Xephos. The force of his blow had clearly done something to Xephos, as he wasn't moving. "So valiant, in fact, that I might not kill you for it."

And with a snap of their fingers, a quick burst of flux magic struck the stunned man right in the chest. Without a word, Xephos crumpled to the floor like a limp rag doll.

"Xeph!" Honeydew shouted, staring at his friend in horror. "What the hell have you done?" He roared at the Mother.

"Nothing I won't do to you," they replied, tone still more like a pure than anything, "you needn't fear being left out."

Enraged, Martyn sent a bolt of pure nature magic through the air towards the Mother, but they only batted the green magic away with a look of boredom on their face.

"Pathetic, Martyn InTheLittleWood," the flux beast hissed, firing a jolt of their own magic at Martyn, which the sapling prince narrowly avoided, "but if you want to play that way… I can accommodate."

"You're just pissing them off, Martyn!" Honeydew yelled, though he too was still trying to have a sword fight with a being that used magic. At least Sips and Sjin were smart, and had switched to mining lasers, but they kept nearly hitting Martyn instead of the Mother.

"This isn't working guys!" Sips called, a look of panic on his pale features.

"I warned you…" the Mother purred, "you won't succeed. Give up, mortals."

"We aren't giving up!" Sjin snarled, firing the laser again, which was as ineffective as the last one.

The Mother grinned, a soft, dreamy expression. "Oh, Sjin. Such an important pawn, it would be a shame to waste your turn. Give up."

"I'm not going to give up!" Sjin insisted, firing again and actually managing to break skin.

Good. Though Martyn. It was possible. Until this point, he hadn't been certain.

So, a little recklessly, the blond threw himself at the Mother, knowing this wouldn't end well unless he timed it perfectly.

"Nice try," the Mother hissed, and a handmade of flux magic caught Martyn around the neck and slammed him into a wall.

He hadn't timed it right. He knew that now that the pressure around his throat was rising, causing him to gag and claw at the hand around his neck. The others were trying to get the Mother to let go, but yet again it wasn't working.

Then the actually pain came. Talons sharps as needles buried themselves into his flesh, and started forcing there way up and down through his veins, separating and growing as they went. The pain came quickly, and didn't fade. Martyn would have screamed had he had the energy to do it.

The fluxy claws were spreading all the way towards his heart, the place that the Sapling Prince knew if they got to, there would be no reversing the damage, but the agony was to much and he couldn't fight the magic, and besides, how was he going to get magic out of his veins without destroying the entire circulatory system in his neck, inevitably killing him?

So he was powerless to stop the flux as it spread to his heart, and was pumped through his entire body. The pain and suffocation grew too much, and Martyn slumped in the Mother's grip.

**TOBY**

Similar to everyone else, Toby had no idea what was going on. He'd managed to sleep through the chat fiasco, and now was sitting confused in InTheLittleCorp, which seemed empty except for him.

Wait, no, Sparkles* was there too. But he didn't really count, being as injured as he was.

But the number one question was why was everyone freaking out about someone's mother?

It all seemed a little ridiculous to the teenage boy, and he was sort of curious ago know what was going on.

However, that wasn't possible, because no one was answering his messages and he wasn't sure he wanted to go to one of the places in question.

So the teen was stuck with no good options.

SoTotallyToby What is going on?

But Toby was ignored. He was left with no alternatives, but to go over to Panda Labs or SipsCo.

Which didn't seem like a good plan, but Toby grabbed his black hoodie and took off anyways.

It was truly a bad idea. But Toby ran for SipsCo, scared to find out what was going on, but scared not to know.

And the boy had a long run to worry about it, which wasn't appreciated. But if he wanted to understand what he had missed, he clearly had to go investigate for himself.

Toby nearly didn't see Nilesy, and didn't remember what had been said about the poolboy.

And he didn't realize until it was far too late. With unearthly strength, Nilesy grabbed Toby by the shoulders and shook him, head snapping forwards then back, and a sickening crack echoing all around.

Server SoTotallyToby was slain by nilesy_

**RYTHIAN**

"What?" Up until now, no one had been killed. Why start with Toby?

"Toby wasn't even supposed to be there!" Nano protested. "We really need to get out of here and solve this!"

"I'm trying!" Rythian closed his eyes again. The idea of breaking the spell and his lack of magical energy were not being very compatible at this point, and just when the Endermage though he had figured it out, something new popped up for him to deal with. His head was swimming with exhaustion. It had been a while since he'd had so little magic to work with.

"No one meant it that way, Rythian," Zoeya muttered.

"I know that, but I should have already gotten us out of here!" The mage was more frustrated with himself than anyone was frustrated with him. It was a complicated spell, yes, but he'd dealt with worse in the past.

Despite the fact that they were trapped in this room, even with Rythian's best efforts, the only one who really looked annoyed was Ravs. And Ravs was just mad because he'd dragged himself into this. Thinking about it, and if Rythian wasn't mistaken, it hadn't been entirely his idea to come help Nano.

But now was not a good time to mention that.

The mage tried to cast out another seeking spell, those seemed to be working the best, however this time he didn't manage it. "Shit!" He muttered angrily. "I can't do this, guys. I'm sorry, I don't have the magical energy at this point."

"I hate to emphasize this point, but you're kinda our only way of getting out, Rythian," the witch wasn't trying to be rude, Rythian knew that, and therefore tried to not give an irritable response.

"Okay, I'm going to put this in a more understandable term. You guys know how furnaces work, right? You have to have coal in them to get them to work, or other combustible things? Right now, I am the furnace with no coal. I am out of magical energy and cannot do anything to do with magic," he didn't want to have to say it, but it was true. Rythian couldn't get them out of the situation, at least not at this moment.

"Strange metaphor, but okay, I get it now," Nano said, nodding, "but then how are we going to get out?"

"First thing's first, Ravs, stop glaring at us like we planned this," Rythian ordered, purple eyes fixed exasperatedly on the bartender, "next, the both of you," he turned to Zoeya and Nano, "have magical energy of your own. You can try and get us out as well."

"Rythian…" Zoeya groaned immediately, "you know I'm horrible at magic."

"No, you're not. I taught you how to use magic, Zoeya. Trust me, you can do it. If anything, don't insult my teaching skills," Rythian said with a slight laugh.

Zoeya rolled her eyes. "I'll insult your teaching skills if doing so tells the truth."

"Whatever. Even if you can't, Kim might be able to. Or Ravs, though I'm not sure how much magical energy you have, and I can't check right now," admitted the Mage, glancing at his bartender friend. He had stopped glaring at them. Instead, he was now glaring at the wall.

"Well, I guess I should try first." NanoSounds offered, standing up off the stone floor. The mage, exhausted, flopped back on the floor with the redhead and Ravs.

"You sure you're okay Rythie?" Zoeya asked in concern.

"Other than feeling completely useless to you guys, yeah, I'm fine." Rythian whined, folding his arms like a stubborn toddler.

"Hey, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings THAT badly." Zoeya teased, crossing her arms as well.

"I try teaching you how to do magic and this is the thanks I get." The great mage pouted under his mask.

"Aww, you big babby. Do you need a cheering up hug?" The girl laughed at the boy as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

They didn't notice Kim while they were teasing each other but they did notice the big clang that sounded when the door was caught and thrown open.

"Okay lovebirds, you want out? There's your way out." Nano said when the pair looked up from the boom.

"Finally remembered how to fix it, huh?" Ravs snarked at the small witch.

"Ravs, calm down! You get to go out and run back to your Cabertown and sleep and be done with this adventure for the first time in days!" Rythian cried, finally fed up with the bartender's complaining.

"Fine, but let's hurry." Ravs agreed, practically running through the doorway.

"Um, question, where are we going as soon as we're out of here?" Nano asked, the last one to exit.

Rythian turned to face the smaller girl.

"We have to go drop off Ravs, see it there are any people left from the attack by Mother and see if Lomadia knows of something to help with the flux."

"'Kay then," the woman agreed, leading the way out of the base. As soon as Ravs set foot outside of Panda Labs, a big blur of orange and grey ran straight into the bartender.

"Oh come on!" Ravs' voice was muffled by the dwarf lying on top of him.

"Sorry not sorry Ravsy!" Honeydew cried, stumbling off of the other man.

"Rythian! Kim! Xephos, Martyn and Sips are fluxed and I don't know what to do! Sjin was right behind me and now he's gone and-" the man all tall as Nano was cut short by the technomancer.

"Slow down Honeydew, you're safe here." Zoeya tried soothing the dwarf who now seemed to be going into hysteria.

"No! None of us are safe! You guys all have the flux and the Mother could take control of your minds at any second!" Honeydew wailed, looking frantically at all four of them, breaths coming out in short gasps.

"I'm sorry friend," Nano murmured and gently put her hands on his trembling shoulders. It took a while for his breaths to calm down, but by that time Rythian had already figured out what the witch was trying to do. He walked behind the dwarf, catching him when he slumped in his sleep. Together the three -including Zoeya- gently lay him down on the ground.

"Why does everything bad have to happen to me?" Ravs grumbled when he was standing on his two feet again.

"So…meeting up with us was a bad thing?" Zoeya asked, crossing her arms.

"Meeting us in GENERAL is a bad thing?" Rythian added.

"I'm starting to think that yes, it could very well be a bad thing."

"Well that's your problem, not ours! Anyways, Ravs: you're gonna have to go to Cabertown by yourself as me and these two lovebirds have to head over to SipsCo. to see what Honeydew was freaking out about so much. I'll give you my jetpack from inside the Labs so it'll be a quicker journey for you back home."

Ravs grumbled again, but nodded his head in agreement. Kim ran off to get the jetpack and returned shortly.

"Here's yours," Kim handed him a forest green jetpack with the word 'NanSounds' engraved on the side, "and I'll take this one 'cause you guys can both fly, I'm presuming." She bobbed her head towards Rythian and Zoeya as she strapped on another green jetpack, but with the name 'LividCoffee' engraved on the side.

"I could try teleporting us there." Rythian suggested, fully knowing he didn't have enough brain power or magic power to do just that.

"No, you have your two flying rings, we'll use those!" Zoeya argued, uncrossing her arms.

"Sounds like a plan. We'll see you later Ravs!" Rythian called up to the bartender in the sky, rainbow trails following his every move.

"So, are we going now?" Kim asked, sounding a bit sad. Rythian didn't blame her; she was carrying one of the last things that was tied to her best friend.

"Of course!" Zoeya exclaimed, grabbing the extra flying ring off of Rythian's index finger.

"Hey! You're gonna scratch me one of these days." Rythian complained as she put it on her middle finger, just like the mage's had his.

"Then I'll just have to kiss all the booboos that I make." Zoeya smirked teasingly.

"Bleh," Nano gagged. "we should go now lovebirds."

After more flirting and more gagging noises, they finally lifted off and headed towards SipsCo.

**SJIN**

The farmer groaned, sitting up and rubbing his temple. It took him a while to remember what had happened to his friends and him.

"Oh Notch, Honeydew!" Sjin called out, trying to stand only to find a sharp pain come from his leg. "Argh, why did that beast have to break my leg as well as flux everyone there?!" Sjin shouted to no one in particular.

He put himself on his hands and knee and crawled his way awkwardly towards the nearest building he saw. Which took him a long time, considering he was on his hands, one knee and one shin in pain the entire way. It was almost dark out when he got to the building, more bloody and dusty than he would've liked.

"Hello? Is anybody there? I need help!" The farmer yelled out into his almost dark surroundings. A handful of torches lit up the outside area.

"Is anyone there?" Sjin called out again, not sure anymore if this place was deserted or not. It didn't LOOK deserted, but there were times when the buildings were.

After waiting for another five minutes, the skies turned from midnight-blue to black, leaving Sjin exposed to the terrors of the outdoors. He was starting to get woozy, having lost blood from the fight with the Mother, she breaking his leg and the crawl here to this fortress. His elbows and left knee were going to be SORE tomorrow, if he ever survived the night. Then again, he was Sjin. He'd been in far worse situations.

"Sjin. Sjin, Sjin, Sjin." A nasal-like voice abruptly spoke up from where the few torches' light didn't shine.

"Huh? Who's there?" The farmer asked, trying to stand up again.

"Sit down! You're in no condition to stand up! Lying, come help me bring him inside!" The owner of the new voice stepped out of the shadows, revealing a tall being with two sets of animal horns growing from his head.

"KirinDave! I-I am SO sorry I came here! I saw your base-" Sjin stuttered as the being came and picked him up with no problem.

"Calm down Sjin. Lying! Would you open the door instead of standing there like a lump on a log!" Kirin ordered.

"Who are you calling the snowflake sized lump on the smelly log?!" Lying cried, reluctantly opening the door for them.

"That's not what I- oh, forget it." Kirin muttered, giving his powerful friend a murderous glare.

Sjin relaxed into the man's arms, ignoring the bickering between the two wizards.

"Come on Lying, you know how important he is to this world!" He heard Kirin say to Lying InBedmon.

"But it would be SOOOOO much easier to just let him die and not have to deal with everyone else! No more puny humans to deal with!" They complained, earning a smack on the head.

"Just to let you know, Lying InBedmon, you and I were once humans before we made ourselves immortal."  
KirinDave pointed out as he slowly and gently put Sjin onto a cot, who gave a shout when his leg hit the bed.

"Notch gave us the power of immortality! Have you forgotten or have those two sets of horns on your head messed with your brain?" Lying snapped, following his companion in.

"We're going to fix him and bring him back to his friends. And maybe erase this from his memory." The man with the horns added, glancing at the farmers wandering eyes.

"What am I so important for?" Sjin asked, having a thousand other questions racing through his head.

Lying sighed. "Do we really need him? It's not like WE'RE going to die anytime soon. I AM indestructible, you know."

Kirin groaned, ignoring Sjin and turning back to the shorter man beside him.

"I know you are, or are you forgetting all those times I tried to kill you with my lightning?"

"Well it did kind of…fail massively."

"Oh you little-"

"Who're you calling a pea sized-"

"Guys!" Sjin shouted, making the two wizards look at him. "I understand that insulting each other is a big part of your daily routine to make sure that you don't blow up the world, but I need you to heal me and tell me what the heck is going on!"

Lying sighed again. "Fine. We'll tell you, but you have to promise that you won't freak out."

"Too late. Just start talking! Please!" Sjin sassed, waiting for an answer, "and my leg is stinging; I'd like no infections if that's possible!"

"I'll get to work on that and Lying will tell you the story." The taller wizard replied, getting to work on Sjin.

"First off: have you had any dreams about a meeting that Ridge called with everybody in this area?"

"…yes." Sjin hesitated before giving them an answer. He didn't know how much he could trust them.

"Come on Sjin, just 'cause I'm crazy doesn't mean that you can't tell me." Lying's pale ponytail waved behind him, the blood finger ends glimmering in the little candle light.

"Anyways, so a long long time ago, Ridge was anointed the power of regeneration by Notch, along with a few side ones, which made him into a Demi-god of some sorts. As you may know, Ridgedog wasn't very loved among us and him getting the powers didn't make anything better. In fact, as cheesy as it is with you humans-"

"Can you speed things up Lying? We don't have all night; we still have to get him home." Kirin snapped, already done setting and healing Sjin's leg.

"Yes, yes, I'm getting there Dave, hold your horns." The small witch grumbled, sitting down on a blue chair that faced the cot.

"Anyways, Ridge gave you the back-up power to revive people. In other words, not us, but your friends."

"And now that Ridge is dead, you have full responsibility to bring everyone back to life." KirinDave finished, not wanting his friend to start another rant.

"So…I have to go around and bring back everyone that died, including Ridge?" Sjin said incredulously. Is that what that ONE dream was about?

"No, not Ridge. He'll only cause more trouble and for what we want to do…he can't be around for that." Kirin answered, exchanging glances with Lying. Obviously there was something happening behind the scenes that Sjin wasn't supposed to know, or be part of.

"Can I go home now?" He asked, yawning. He wanted to see someone or something that he was familiar with.

"Not yet," the horned wizard smirked knowingly. "you have to wait until morning to go back. Rest for the next couple of hours; you'll need it tomorrow."

**XEPHOS**

The spaceman woke up with a splitting headache and lungs that weren't working properly. He groaned and tried to sit up, quickly finding out that he had a few broken ribs and one of his wrists was severely mangled.

He looked closely at his hands. They were a violet colour, all the up to his elbows. He could feel it, swirling around on his arms and hands, moving with ease.

The Mother fluxed him.

He was screwed.

"Crap. Honeydew!?" He cried, coughing up blood as soon as the cry went through his lips.

Sitting was a no go, standing wasn't working, he couldn't shout for help and was covered in purple crap.

Brilliant.

He coughed up some more blood, not sure what to do anymore. He was supposed to be the leader in the group. He was the person that everyone looked to.

And he was the one who was stuck here until respawn kicked in and killed him out of mercy.

Stretching his neck as far up as he could without hurting-which wasn't very far-to see out of the huge hole in the brick wall.

The night sky was covering the day.

My luck just doesn't like me today, does it? He questioned to himself.

He grabbed a torch that had spilled out of his pack, lit it and placed it beside him, lighting up the area around him. At least now no mobs could spawn around him. That's when he saw the body.

"Martyn! Martyn, can you hear me? It's me, Xephos!" He called hoarsely to his friend. There was no reply and no movement from the corpse.

The spaceman leaned his head against the floor, eyes droopy. He forced them open again and threw a couple more torches around.

"Martyn?" Xephos called once more. To his disappointment, there was no response once more.

Sighing heavily, he closed his eyes and let blackness fall around him.

"Xeph? Xephos? Can you hear me?" A distant voice cried, a finger gently prodding him in the shoulder.

"Hm?" He murmured, the bright light messing with his eyes. When he could see more properly, he looked up at who was talking to him.

"Nano! Rythian, Zoeya! What are you doing here?" He cried, forgetting about his chest and ended up in another coughing fit.

"Hey, let me help you." The short girl knelt down beside him and poured some healing potion onto his more apparent wounds. They stung as they knitted themselves, but it was worth it.

"There. Can you sit up now?" She asked, backing away to give him more room.

"I can most certainly try." He grumbled, and actually managed to do it this time, to his surprise.

"So you're fluxed too? How many of us are fluxed?" Rythian asked, still standing beside Zoeya, the two of them holding hands.

"No idea. I had woken up to find the flux all over my arms." Xephos took his good hand and rubbed his forehead, moving his hair out of his piercing blue eyes.

"We did too," Zoeya piped up, stepping forward to look at the spaceman's wrist, gently holding it. "what happened to your wrist?"

"Fight with the Mother. Have you seen Honeydew, Sjin or Sips?" He asked, wincing when the girl pressed too hard with her thumb.

"Aw, geez, my hands are-oh hey dudes! Why're you here?" The grey-skinned man walked into the room, rubbing his arms.

"Sips?" Kim walked over to him. "We didn't know you where still here. Do you know where Sjin went?"

"Nah mate, I blacked out before Sjin did. No idea where he went. So all of us are fluxed then?" He asked.

"Apparently so." Xephos replied. Suddenly, he remembered about Martyn.

"Martyn! Is he awake yet?" He asked, trying to look around all the standing people at the man who was still slumped against the wall.

"No, not yet. I'm not sure he will either." Rythian said, pointing to all the tentacles that hung around his body. Xephos wasn't able to see the plum coloured things in the dark with a couple of torches, but with the sun to help, his friend did NOT look good. He was almost as bad as Nano; half his face covered in lavender that seemed to mix with light green swirls, and his arms were completely covered as well. His eyes were closed, so they couldn't tell if his eye was messed up too.

"Poor guy." Sips said sympathetically.

"Poor guy? He's almost as bad as me!" Nano pointed out, folding her arms across her chest like a stubborn child.

"You don't have flux tentacles stuck to your body though." Zoeya reminded. "And by the looks of it, they also have needles all over them, so be careful if you touch him."

"Because we aren't fluxed already." Sips drawled, sitting down beside Xeph.

"So? We going 'cause I want some explaining done to me."

"Come on mate, let's go to…" NanoSounds thought for a while.

"Well, Cabertown is a no go." Rythian suggested.

"Could we go to Panda Labs?" Xephos offered.

"No, not after what just happened with the Mother and everything. Let's go to KirinDave and Lying InBedmon. They'll be able to help us, right?" Kim asked.

The spaceman's eyes widened. "The two most powerful people in this area? Are you NUTS?"

"Not as much as that Lying character." Rythian muttered. All eyes stared at him. He cleared his throat.

"I had a run-in with him once. I agree: if anyone can help us, it'll be them."

"Fine, but Sips' is the human sacrifice if we need one," Xephos sighed. "and can I get some help with me standing up?" Nano and Zoeya ran over and helped him hobble onto both feet, where Sips and Rythian grabbed the Sapling Prince, careful not to touch the fluxy needles.

"Come on then. We don't have all day." Kim said, walking out of the remains of SipsCo.

It took them all day to get to the lair of the two wizards. To say the least, NONE of them were impressed.

"Thought you said we didn't have all day?" Sips snarked when they could see the buildings in front of the setting sun.

"I didn't realize it would take us all day to get here, just be quiet!" Kim answered, holding Xephos, who with every couple of steps would cough up blood.

It wasn't looking very rainbows and sunshiny for him.

"You don't have to carry an unconscious man Kim!" Sips argued.

"I have to carry a conscience man, you dingus!" Kim snapped back.

"Guys! Settle down, we're almost there now!" Rythian cried, breaking the tension.

"How much farther?" Xeph asked the taller girl on his right.

"Not much farther. We should get there before the sun sets completely on us." Zoeya frowned.

"Good. My legs hurt and I don't think that my throat and chest can handle all this coughing." Xephos said hoarsely.

"You'll have to be okay for right now Xeph." Nano grumbled, still glaring at Sips.

"Well, doesn't matter if you're legs hurt or not, 'cause we're here now!" Zoeya cried, making Xephos cringe.

"Sorry! Didn't mean to shout in your ear." Zoeya apologized more quietly.

Before he could respond, he felt Rythian pick him up bridal-style and walk to the door.

"Hello! Is anyone there?" Nano shouted, knocking loudly on the door.

The door slowly opened, revealing a man as tall as Rythian, maybe even taller, with two sets of animal horns perched on his head. When he saw who it was, he opened the door wider, letting them come inside.

"Come in; we've been expecting you."

_Well that was an adventure and a half. The next chapter will hold most of the answers to the problems in this one, so be sure to stick around!_

_Don't forget to review!  
~EndingFury_


	12. Chapter 12 To Live is to Die

**Why does this always happen to me?  
-Rythian**

**I caused this, I forced this, can I continue on?  
-Area 11, Euphemia**

**Okey-dokey. I do know there were a lot of pronoun errors for Lying in the last chapter, just to clear this up, they are witch!Lying, and I will be trying to make sure the pronouns remain neutral at all times. Sorry we messed them up!  
-CloseToSomethingReal**

**NILESY  
**  
Pain.

That was all he felt when he woke up.

He slowly opened his eyes, letting the sunlight fly into his sight. He was in the middle of a pile of rubble, probably for a reason he didn't understand.

How'd I get here? He thought to himself, sitting up with a gasp of pain. He felt sharp stabs of pain throughout his chest. It also didn't help that he could see that his legs were pinned underneath the rocks that supposedly fell on him.

He grabbed a couple of the closer pieces of rubble and threw them off. He could now see more of his legs, but they were still pinned under the rocks.

He sat there, thinking of ways to get the rocks off of him.

That's when he realized his hands were purple. All of a sudden he could remember what happened. He could hear the screams, the cries, the cackles all over again. He could feel the dark purple blasts escape his palms, the sickening feeling of digging needles into Martyn's skin, fluxing him from the inside out.

So that's how he got here. He did this to himself, to his friends.

"I did this…" he muttered to himself, feeling sick. He could feel the watery flux dripping off his fingers and onto the stones beside him. It was also getting dangerously close to his eyes and he didn't want what happened to Nano to happen to him.

"Hello? Anybody still here?!" No response. Cold, stifling silence. There had been people here earlier, the pool boy knew it. Mostly because he remembered attacking them.

But it made sense that they would have left without him. Why shouldn't they? He'd fluxed them, and tried to kill them. "Great Notch…" he ran a hand roughly through his hair, groaning. What had happened? He felt like he was missing something.

Right. A sharp snap, a lot of force breaking a solid line of vertebrae. The other person he clearly remembered hurting.

Toby. Toby was dead because he'd killed him.

"No, no, no…" Nilesy mumbled, utterly horrified with himself. He needed to get out from under these stones.

{nilesy} I'm myself again, someone please come help me… I'm trapped under a bunch of crap  
{Lomadia} from what I hear, that wouldn't be wise

Nilesy sighed. His blond friend was very right. It likely wasn't wise to help him at this point. He had just attacked them all, tried to destroy them and flux them.

Or rather, Mother had tried to use his form to do so.

{MintyMinute} forget that, I'll be right there

Nilesy sighed again. Should he let her? He didn't want to argue, so he let the blond come running to help.

Minty quickly pushed the rubble off the poolboy and pulled him to his feet. "Are you alright?"

Nilesy shook his head, he could barely stand. "You should have just left me…"

Minty shook her head. "That's ridiculous. You didn't do it, the Mother did." She told him, brushing off his pale green shirt. "Can you walk?"

The man shook his head.

"Alright, then I'll get to carry you." The blond decided, and with that, she threw him over her shoulder. "Back to the Captive Creeper! I have some supplies there."

Nilesy groaned, but didn't protest. He knew very well that he needed medical attention. That was obvious.

Minty didn't even bring up the whole Mother thing, she seemed to not want to discuss it any more than Nilesy did.

The poolboy felt violated. He'd been used to hurt and try to kill his friends.

Why?

Why him?  
**  
ZOEYA**

Rythian was glaring intently at Lying, it was going to get them in trouble. Thankfully, the small witch didn't seem to have noticed.

"You've been waiting for us?" Sips repeated, sounding suspicious. "That's not creepy."

"Don't question them, Lying's in a whiny mood."

"Yeah, we have. Just come on in, what's a few more useless humans anyways?" Lying decided.

"Honestly, Lying. Stop whining." KirinDave complained. "We can help, it won't hurt us." The arch-mage continued.

His 'friend' huffed and walked back into the base. "It's not like it will help them, anyways." The short blond muttered, though they didn't explain why they said it.

"Lying!" KirinDave protested, rolling his eyes. All three of them.

"Look at them, KirinDave. There's no hope."

"Rythian?" Zoeya was starting to get scared by all this 'they're doomed' talk. "What did Lying mean by that?"

The mage sighed. "Exactly what they're saying, I assume." He admitted. He didn't seem to want to well his apprentice his guess.

"Why is there no hope, Lying?" Nano demanded.

"You should know, Nano. Shouldn't-" they were cut off when KirinDave clamped a hand over their mouth.

"Never mind, Nano. Lying's going to shut up, and we'll talk about it later." The horned man replied, pulling his hand away rather quickly. "Did you just bite me, Lying?"

The witch smirked but didn't answer their companion.

"Guys, we don't have time to argue with Lying." Sips remarked. "We need help."

Zoeya nodded, following after Lying and KirinDave until the short blond witch doubled back and pulled Rythian to the side.

"Rythie?"

"He'll be alright, Zoeya. I just want to talk to him. Run along." Lying instructed in their nasally voice. Zoeya sighed and walked off with the others.

RYTHIAN

"What do you want, Lying?" The Endermage demanded, not looking very impressed with the witch.

"You still owe me for sparing you, don't be so irritable." Lying replied with a sharp-toothed grin. There was blood on their teeth, they must have actually bit KirinDave.

"So you've figured out what you want me to do. Great. Get on with it, Lying. Now's not a great time." Rythian said impatiently.

The witch pulled the Mage down by the front of his shirt to whisper their instructions in his ear. Rythian's eye grew wide with horror.

"No." He replied immediately. "No, not that."

"You swore anything, and she's dead anyways!" Lying retorted in a tone that was still cheerful. "You owe me and that's what I want."

"Lying… I can't-"

"You can. I know you've killed before, if you've done it to one person, you can do it to more."

"Why?" The mage demanded, not looking at all willing to do it.

"Because. Someone has to do it." Lying explained. "I'd like to do some damage." They purred. "You're going to have to do it. I can make you, I'm sure you'd rather not have me make it look like it was easy for you."

Rythian growled, but he knew Lying was right. "Fine." He stormed away and back to Zoeya.

"What did Lying want?" The girl asked, bright blue eyes wide with concern. She didn't know the details, but she knew Rythian and the witch had a rocky history.

"Nothing. Just to talk." Rythian said guardedly. "Don't worry about it, Zo."

Zoeya sighed. "Why are you lying to me, Rythian? I know you are."

"Never mind, Zoeya. It's nothing that important." Rythian lied.

"You can tell me, Rythian." Zoeya insisted, not believing him for a second.

"I know, Zoeya. If it was important, I'd tell you." The brunet told her, sighing. It was important. For both of them. But he couldn't tell her.

How could he?

He was jerked out of thoughts they walked into a room with a certain farmer in.

"Sjin? What are you doing here?" Xephos asked, wincing when Kim settled him onto the bed next to Sjin. Sips allowed Martyn to be taken away with Kirin, leaving them with Lying, which Rythian figured wasn't any better than if they had taken Martyn.

"Well, I escaped from the Mother. I don't exactly remember how, just the fact that I somehow found my way here." Sjin shrugged. "Kirin and Lying helped me and said something about bad things were going to have to happen. Also, apparently I have the ability to be Ridgedog basically."

Gasps were made at that statement.

"You mean you can bring back Lalna?" Nano cried, a look of pain and rage on her face. She ran for Sjin and was about to hit him when Sips grabbed hold of her.

"You can bring him back and you didn't say anything in chat?! _Why_?!" She practically screamed, trying to claw out of the grip of Sips, who seemed to be stronger than her.

"Nano, he just found out and then we showed up. There wasn't any time." Zoeya said soothingly to the girl, coming up to her when Sips could let go of her. Nano, who looked like she was breaking, grabbed hold of the red-head and started to weep.

Lying rolled his eyes. "Yes, well, that's life. Anyways, we have some…business to talk about. Kirin and I know of a cure, but you have to promise not to cry."

"Lying, really?" Kirin said from the doorway. When everyone turned to him, he nodded. "Martyn's gonna be fine."

"What do you mean Lying?" Sips asked cautiously.

"The only way to be cured is to die."

**NILESY**

"Minty, you really didn't-"

"Niles, stop saying that! It wasn't your decision to go and kill Toby, okay?"

"But I'm still the one who did it!" Nilesy looked out the window he was nearest to.

{Sparklesbian} Nilesy? Are you okay?

A direct message. This was going to be interesting.

{nilesy} …I don't know.

{Sparklesbian} I saw what happened through the chat. If I wasn't stuck in this bed I'd come see you.

{nilesy} I don't know if that's a good idea to begin with…especially with Toby dead and probably others injured.

{Sparklesbian} I think that if the Mother still wanted to hurt you, she would've done it already. I mean, can't she technically kill you?

{nilesy} I didn't think of it like that. Well, when either of us is better, I guess you can come see me…just bring a sword and running shoes.

{Sparklesbian} You know I will.

"Niles? Niiles?" Minty waved her hand in front of his face.

"Hm? Yeah, I'm still here. Sorry, I was talking with Sparkles*."

"Oh? And how is he?" The girl asked, sitting on the edge of the bed the poolboy was on.

"He said he's still stuck in bed, but he sounded eager to leave."

"Well I hope that he feels better soon." Minty hopped off the bed and came back with a bowl of soup on a tray.

"As you probably know, you need to eat something. It's chicken noodle soup, laced with a healing potion." Minty stated, setting the tray on his lap, which made Nilesy wince.

"As you wish…" And with that, the poolboy started eating. Almost immediately, he made a face.

"Healing potion does _not_ taste good."

Minty smiled. "I didn't put a lot in. It should help you get your strength back and hopefully do the basic healing of your leg, so we don't have to surgery. After that, we need to lay off the magic and heal your leg with time."  
And with that, she left the room to give the man some time alone.

"Fine…" Nilesy grumbled to her as she left. He liked magic. It was plenty useful, but also dangerous. He smiled. He and Lomadia had made many magical items together. Many different potions and enchantments had been tested on each other. Some of them had been very entertaining as well; the brew of the grotesque~. Nilesy smirked at that memory. It took hours to wear off but he found out the true cost of fooling around with potions with that one.

When he ate another spoonful, he could start to feel his chests pain lessen. Slowly, with every spoonful, it hurt less to breathe, but also he could feel his legs again, and the awful pain they brought with them. He winced, but continued eating the soul until it was gone.

He didn't remember falling asleep. What he did know is that sometime later he woke up from a slumber void of dreams.

"Well good morning sleepyhead." A girl's voice lilted off of the walls and into his ears.

"Hgnn…" Nilesy groaned. He lifted up his hands to rub his eyes, but remembered about the watery flux on his fists before he touched his eyes.

Minty laughed. "Time to get up. You have a visitor."

Nilesy was fully awake with that statement. "Really? Who?"

"I thought I might say hi." A new voice popped up. "And maybe help you with those broken ribs of yours."

"Lom? What're _you_ doing here?!" Nilesy struggled to sit up properly in his bed. Minty grabbed some extra pillows and helped prop up the poolboy on the bed with them.

"Well, Honeydew woke up-"

"Wait, _Honeydew_ is here now?! How long was I asleep?!" Nilesy cried, wincing a little when it made his chest hurt.

"About 15 hours." Minty answered. "You were snoring like a truck."

"Yeah, he tends to do that." Lomadia smirked.

"Thanks guys." Nilesy mumbled, feeling a little embarrassed. It was nice though to have his mind taken off the events that had happened prior.

"Anyways, Honeydew woke up at Panda Labs and started freaking out about the things in the chat, so naturally I spoke up and explained a lot of things and then Minty mentioned you being here so I got Honeydew from Panda Labs and we came here." Lomadia finished.

"Well, thanks for saying hi even if I did all those bad things before." Nilesy smiled warmly.

"One: that was the Mother, not you. And two: what are friends for?"  
_  
Duh duh duhhhhhh! What do you think Lying was telling Ryth? Please review!  
~EndingFury_


	13. Chapter 13 Painful Memories

_**WARNING: This chapter is basically everyone dying. Please don't read this if that bothers you. The next chapter will have no death (spoilers) so if you can't read this chapter; stay tuned for the next one!**_****

**NANOSOUNDS**

"What do you mean we have to die?!" Nano cried from Zoeya's embrace.

"And why does Sjin have this 'back-up' power?" Xephos added, attempting to stand up only to fall back onto the bed, wincing.

"Well at least the charm worked on you guys." Kirin stated.

"What charm?! What the heck is going on here?" Xephos cried, clearly frustrated.

"Let's let Sjin explain, shall we?" Rythian stood with his arms crossed.

Sjin sighed. "So apparently, we had this big meeting after Ridge was granted the power to be a demi-god, and he wanted someone to be a backup so that way in case one of us killed him then we could still be brought back, including him if we wanted to. So, all of us had decided that I should be the back-up person if we needed me. And then someone deleted our memories about the meeting, I guess. That's why we don't remember it."

"Ridge charmed your memories because he didn't want you to go kill him because you didn't want him around anymore."

"I guess you can't blame him; no one really liked him in the first place." Sips pointed out.

"You still didn't answer my question!" Nano cried, her eyes beginning to tear up.

Kirin shared a look with Lying before sighing.

"When you, Nano, first got fluxed, Lalna came to us and asked if there was anything we could do. We didn't know that humans could be fluxed; we only knew of biomes and animals. When Lalna heard this he wasn't exactly happy."

"No kidding." Xephos snapped. Kirin glared at him.

"Anyways, we took to experimenting with animals and testificates. With the help of Ridge, we managed to figure out that if the testificates died for a special cause, they would come back unscathed by the flux."

"And that cause?" Zoeya asked.

Lying spoke up. "If your death has meaning, you can come back free of flux."

"So if we resurrected Lalna, he could come back without the flux?" Nano asked hopefully.

Her sole response was a nod, which was enough for her.

"But Lalna's death wasn't meaningful." Sips said bewilderedly.

"It was too: he died protecting Nano and Rythian, who would've both died if he hadn't stopped Ridgedog." Lying replied, holding their hand up to their face to look at their nails.

"Then I want to be the next to die." Nano stated, letting go of her friend.

"What? Nano, we-" Zoeya started to say, separating themselves and looking Nano in the eyes.

"No. If everyone has to die, then I want to be first. I was the one who got into this mess first, I was the one who brought the Mother down on you guys. So why can't I be the first to die?" Nano interrupted.

"Kirin, you said that the death had to be with meaning…" Rythian said slowly, as if he was asking a question.

"Yes. We've figured that if you guys all die from each other and then Sjin brings you back, then you should come back without flux." Kirin answered.

"How do you know this will work?" Nano demanded.

"We told you: we tested it. You will be fine." Kirin assured the smaller girl.

"So who's going to do it?" Nano asked, narrowing her eyes. "Who's going to kill me?"

There were no volunteers. No one here was comfortable ending NanoSounds' life, even for a short amount of time.

She was going to have to try something else. She blinked a few times and did her best impression of being possessed by the Mother, and lunged at Sips, knowing the man was already reputed for blowing her up, surely he wouldn't mind stabbing her or something. "You will die by my hand, and never be free… I do not let my children go so easily…"

Seemed Mother-ish to her. Combined with her drawing a knife and aiming for Sips' throat, it was enough to make him draw his own weapon.

It was chaotic. Several people tried to hold her back. Nano knew Zoeya did, but she slashed at the girl and Rythian yanked his apprentice back, so that was two sets of hands out of the way. A few were in no condition to stop them. Sjin was trying to stop her, and Nano knew she couldn't touch him. He was their last hope.

She pushed Sjin away and was free to continue attacking Sips. "Uh, Nano?"

She ignored him, drawing blood from a cut across his cheek to finally get his attention.

She was terrified. She had no guarantee this would work. Who knew if this even counted as meaningful? It could be a useless attempt, and she'd come back fluxed, marked for death yet again.

It was a scary thought. She wanted so badly to be free. That thought kept her blade hand moving and her body weaving, avoiding Sips' careful strikes, making sure he wouldn't have a choice but to really aim to kill.

Just one strike and she would be free. She could see the look finally settle into the pale man's face when he decided to actually kill.

And just like that, she lunged but didn't strike. She let his blade pierce into her chest, Zoeya's cry of horror echoing in her ears as she fell to her knees, staring up at Sips.

The man looked horrified. "Thank… you…" Nano breathed, blood bubbling at her lips. Everything was going fuzzy. Her surroundings were spinning. Her friend, the poor, innocent red head raced to her side, in a state of panic, but didn't she see this had to happen? None of them could be free until they were all dead.

Nano let her eyelids flutter. The world had become shapeless and dark. Everything was fading, and the last thing she heard was a calm, loving voice calling her. "Nano…" she knew the voice like she knew her own. She answered with his name and let go, allowing the blackness to sweep over her.

And beside the horror scene of blood and gore, KirinDave and Lying watched with nothing but sick interest as the dying girl mumbled Lalna's name. "One down." The blond witch said with a sharp-toothed grin, picking at their blood red nails. "Who's next?"

**XEPHOS**

Outrage. Zoeya was wailing, Sips was in shock, Sjin looked about ready to punch Lying and KirinDave out, it didn't look good.

Xephos wasn't very impressed either. "What the hell?"

"She's dead, so now there's one less. Or did you forget how to count?" Lying snarled at Xephos, looking up from their nails.

"Don't talk about her like that!" Zoeya yelled, having to be held back by Rythian as she tried to tackle Lying. It struck Xephos as strange, the girl was usually non-violent. But then again. She'd been under a lot of stress lately. He couldn't blame her. "We aren't numbers!"

"You're all numbers to people like us. Now finish up before her blood soaks the carpet too much." Lying ordered.

There was already a fair pool around the still body of Lalna's small partner. Xephos didn't know her that well. He knew her condition, Lalna had come pleading to him for help with it. That was it. But he still wasn't impressed to have her death slighted like this.

Her eyes were open. One chocolate brown, one pale purplish-blue. The spaceman crouched down and closed them.

She didn't appear sleeping, even with that. She was too pale, face waxen, lips parted in her final word. A name.

Lalna. Why was he not surprised?

"Why are you all hysterical? You all have to die anyways!" Lying reasoned. "Pick someone else and go for it."

Zoeya was still crying. "Zo, I think we should go for a walk." Rythian decided. She nodded.

Xephos noticed the mage glare at Lying, who nodded in approval.

It was only a few more seconds before Xephos felt a blade cut across his throat and he collapsed.

"You must have thought I was a fool not to notice what you did. Water under the bridge. We both forget that, and this."

The man with the knife was Xephos' most trusted friend.

Honeydew.

"And I know what you did to Lalna to get rid of Lalnable. And they'll respawn the same as ever."

Everything went black.

**HONEYDEW**

"A bit of anger there?" Sips asked.

"You didn't think I was that dumb as to not know what he was doing, did you?"

Everyone went silent.

"Great support guys." Honeydew huffed.

"How did you get here anyways?" Sjin asked. "You literally came out of nowhere and killed Xephos."

"I teleported thanks to Lom." Honeydew answered. "She's with Nilesy and Minty right now."

"Isn't Nilesy fluxed as well?" Sips pointed out.

"Yeah…we're gonna have bring him over here, I guess." Honeydew sighed. "But I've been here long enough to know what's going on."

"That's nice." Lying clapped their hands together. "Kirin and I are going to leave now. We'll be back in a day to clean up your bodies." And with that, they both disappeared.

Silence met everyone's ears again.

"So? Who's next?" Sips pipped up. "Nano's dead, Xeph is dead, who should die next?"

Everyone turned to the barely alive body of Martyn. "We could stop his suffering." Honeydew suggested.

Sjin sighed, but nodded his head in agreement. "He shouldn't have to suffer anymore."

So, after struggling to figure out who would kill their friend, Sjin was the one to plunge a dagger into Martyn's heart, shedding tears as he whispered his goodbyes.

After sitting down and being silent as a group, Nilesy was brought over by Lom, who nodded silently and didn't look at the three bodies lying on the bed and floor.

"I'm sorry Niles." She muttered and left as fast as she had came.

Nilesy looked at the rest of the group.

"I guess I should be next."

Sips nodded solemnly, taking the pool boy and biting into the jugular vein. It was only moments before it was no longer Nilesy in his arms but another corpse.

Sips went next, deciding to be stabbed with a wooden stake. After all, he was a vampire.

Honeydew, being the last one to die, turned to Sjin. "Just make it quick." The dwarf said, closing his eyes. There was a sudden burst of hot-white agony as a sword was plunged into his chest. He opened his eyes momentarily to see Sjin with a look of regret on his face.

"See…you on…the other side…" the dwarf managed to choke out before he closed his eyes and let the white light envelope him.

**SJIN**

The former farmer pulled the metal blade out of his friend, the sliver glistening with red blood.

"Well done Sjin." Lying exclaimed, popping back into the room, clasping their hands together. KirinDave had not followed them in this time.

"And how is dead friends supposed to help me with being the new "Ridge?"" Sjin asked, throwing his sword across the room like a dagger; it hit in between two wooden beams.

"They're supposed to have no more flux now, remember? And tomorrow, you can revive them and all will be fine!" Lying explained. "Now please, follow me."

Sjin hesitated. "What about Rythian and Zoeya?"

"They'll figure themselves out! Once they're dead I'll bring their bodies to you." Lying dismissed the technomancers with a wave of their hand. "Now please, follow me. Unless you want to watch the servants clean the dead."

Sjin turned to see translucent gnomes wander around, picking up the bodies and bringing them to one side of the room.

"No thanks." Sjin responded.

He followed Lying around the home, getting a glance at crazy artifacts and odd paintings.

They went into a secluded room, filled only with a glowing fireplace and a couple of cushions.

"Please, sit." Lying offered, sitting on one of the cushions. Sjin followed suit.

"Now, I want you to close your eyes and open up your mind." Lying directed, looking into Sjin's blue eyes. The farmer hesitated.

"…Why?" He asked. Lying sighed and muttered something about how humans were so inquisitive.

"So that way I can unlock these powers of yours. Unless if you want your friends to be dead forever."

Sjin nodded in understanding. "Got it."

"Excellent! Now close your eyes…" Lying scooted up closer to Sjin and put their long-nailed fingers on his temples. Slowly, Sjin began to sink into the glowing darkness.

"Sjin. Sjiii-iiin… SJIN!" A voice yelled, making the farmer yelp and open his eyes.

To his surprise, he wasn't in the glowing room with Lying anymore, covered in human blood. He was back in the conference room; the grand table sitting to his left and chairs scattered across the room. He sat lazily on one of the chairs, and had apparently been sleeping. No one else was in the room except for Sjin and a certain purple and brown eyed girl.

"N-Nano?!" Sjin stammered when he saw his friend standing in front of him. "How-what- you're alive!"

The girl gave him an odd look. "Yeah, of course I am! I didn't die during the meeting, did I?"

"No, but I watched Sips-" Sjin started to explain when Nano cut him off.

"You know what; I don't want to hear about what you came up with in your head. I knew Ridge shouldn't have left you in here alone."

The mention of Ridge's name startled Sjin even more.

"Where's Ridge?" Sjin asked, sitting up straight in his chair now. Nano narrowed her eyes, and then pointed to a room behind the pair.

"He's in there. You were just talking to him, why do you need to see him again?" The fluxed girl asked.

"It doesn't matter right now. Go be with Lalna while you still can." Sjin dismissed her, getting up and weaving around the chairs to the office in the back of the meeting hall.

When he got to the office door, he opened it and saw Ridgedog sitting by the desk, reading a book.

"Ridge, I need to ask you something." Sjin stated, walking into the room. The demigod looked up and put his book down.

"What can I help you with, Sjin?"

"I need to know what we talked about in the meeting." The farmer wasn't entirely sure what the point of him being here was, but maybe he could figure out some information on how to trigger his granted powers.

"Well, we talked about what we're going to do about the fact that the bees are disappearing." Ridgedog looked quizzically at him. "You were one of the people who had wanted to hold this meeting; how can you not remember?"

"I-I don't know." Sjin looked around to see if anyone else was listening and then closed the door. He sat down on the chair in front of the large desk, making him feel he was talking to the principal at school. "I remember us talking about the bees and that you were granted your powers and you made me a back-up demigod."

Ridge's eyes flashed with an emotion, but it happened too quickly for Sjin to register what it was.

"I'm sorry Sjin, that's not what happened. I don't know where you got the idea that we made you another demigod, but that's a lie." The way Ridge spoke- the spacing of the words, the tone of his voice- it made him almost believe him. He shook that thought out of his head; he had been sent here by Lying, who was probably watching this conversation!

"Oh. Okay." Sjin pretended to believe him. "Just another question though: IF I had these powers, what would I have to do to activate them?"

Ridge gave the farmer a look that told Sjin he really shouldn't be asking these things. However, the demigod sighed and answered the question.

"You would need to basically pull it out of your butt, meaning that, hmm, how we should go with this…ah, if you wanted to make your crops grow faster, you would need to think really hard on what you want to happen and not let anyone or anything distract you. If you get distracted, you would create extreme problems for yourself and for your surroundings.

"Now, I'm going to have to wipe this conversation from your memory, so that way you don't go telling everyone my fatal flaw, okay?" Ridge smiled tightly and brought his fingers up to Sjin's temples. "This will only take a moment."

But as Sjin could feel the conversation slipping from his mind, he felt himself come back to present day.

Soon, he opened his eyes - without remembering when he had closed them- to the extremely powerful inhuman sitting in front of him.

"Fortunately for us, I have the ability to restore memory." Lying was telling him, smiling with his sharp teeth.

"So when am I going to bring them back?" Sjin asked, watching Lying stand up and stretch.

"I told you, tomorrow. You need to rest in between then and now of course. The servants will bring you to your room and will serve you food and a bath. Either I or Kirin will come get you in the morning."

Lying snapped their fingers and another ghost-like gnome appeared in the room.

"Please follow me, Mr. Sjin." The gnome said in a rough voice. The farmer turned to ask Lying something only to find that they had gone.

So with no other choice, Sjin let the gnome servant lead him around for the rest of the day, wondering how he would ever be able to figure himself out.

_Aaaaaand that's the end of this chapter guys! We're almost done the complete story, so stay tuned for the final chapter(s) coming up!_

_Don't forget to review!  
~EndingFury_


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